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Join the Legion, and see the world--at least part of it

By Carl Heintze

If you're a male, did you ever hanker to join the French Foreign Legion? To get away from whatever is bothering you (or you're trying to escape) or simply because you'd like some adventure in foreign, exotic lands?

Well, you still can, although it would appear enlistees aren't as numerous as they used to be.

The French Foreign Legion was formed back in the 19th century to help the French hold their empire together. Its big attraction was that it was open to anyone, no questions asked, if you could pass the physical.

It wasn't supposed to be part of what the French called the Armee Metropolitan, the force that fought in World Wars I and II and was made of Frenchmen, most of them conscripted.

The Legion was and is all volunteers. You don't necessarily have to be non-French, but most Legionnaires are. They used to be part of the rest of French forces, the Armee which wasn't intended to defend France, but to keep its colonies in order.

Until the world wars, the Legion served as a bulwark of the French presence in North Africa--although Legionnaires served in other parts of the far-flung empire as well--and became the subject of a dozen or so novels, memoirs and numerous movies, starring among others Gary Cooper and Laurel and Hardy (although, I should add, not in the same picture).

Perhaps Beau Geste was the most famous of these foreign flicks. In the movies and in fact the Legion was associated mostly with the desert, with forts besieged by Bedouins. Usually Legionnaires wore their traditional uniforms: baggy trousers, blue coats with white caps to which were attached a sort of shade to keep the hot sun off the back of their necks.

No one knows quite how many criminals, adventurers or others left Europe escaping something or other and joined the Legion, but it was a legend after World War II that many former German Wehrmacht soldiers fled Germany and signed up with assumed names.

Historians say this isn't true, that the number of German Legionnaires was exaggerated. Still, you could find a lot of Germans in the Legion in post-war times. But there were soldiers of fortune from all over.

The Legion made a lot of history, real and imagined, in North Africa, but its big moment came when the French fought the Vietnamese in the 1950s in Indochina.

France had established a colonial regime that included Vietnam, Laos and other parts of Southeast Asia in the 19th century.

When World War II came along, the Japanese invaded Southeast Asia on their way to Singapore, Burma and Indonesia and managed an uneasy truce with the area until the war ended. In the interim, Ho Chi Minh began organizing Vietnam for independence and, when the French didn't leave gracefully after the war, launched a guerrilla campaign that only ended when American troops left.

As their part of the Vietnam War, the French struggled with the Viet Minh with regular French troops, some paratroopers and the Legion. When they finally surrendered at Dien Bien Phu, the Legion went back to North Africa. But, alas, their time there had come, too. The Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian drives for independence ended the Legion's hold on its home base and almost ended the Legion.

Much reduced in size and influence, however, it still soldiers on.

"All for one and one for all" is still a Legion motto, and it's still looking for enlistees.

The original Legion was ordered into being by Emperor Louis Phillipe in 1831 and helped support the ill-fated Emperor Maximilian in Mexico.

These days, if you do sign up for Legion service, your chances for adventure and travel are somewhat limited. French Guiana and a few other minor possessions are about all that's left of the Empire and among the few places where the Legion is now stationed. There are Legionnaires in Tahiti, though.

The Legion now numbers about 9,000, or at most, a couple of battalions. That's a decline in strength from the Legion's days in Vietnam, when it could muster the equivalent of a division of infantry. The uniform's about the same, though, and the pay, while adequate, is not going to make you rich.

Legionnaires also are widespread. They've been a part of NATO involvement in the Balkans and have served in Afghanistan. They are to be found from Madagascar to Djibouti, so I suppose you could say you can still join the Legion and see the world.

You're not likely to see many camels, though.