You and the Foreign Legion

**Eagle eye** · 11th July 2006, 11:38

Originally Posted by lirelou

Served in the 1960-70s Special Forces with a few "DP's" (displaced persons) who had been in the Legion in Indochina (Orest Jaworski, Ed Kurantowisc, Jan Novy, "Dutch Schulz", Sava Steppanovitch, a Masarek, and a few Ivanovs), before I went to Vietnam, where I ended up serving with some Vietnamese NCOs who had been in the Legion. Later met several Legion officers through exchange programs and liaison duties, and visited the 1st RE at Pau. Briefly considered the Legion after being "riffed" out of the U.S. Army as a Captain in 1972, but opted for university and the Guardia Nacional de Puerto Rico instead. Returned to the U.S. Army in 1978 and retired in 1989 in Panama, after which I delved into Legion history and wrote several articles on its role and composition in Indochina, in collaboration with Dr. Mireille Nicoud, then at the Univ of Montpellier, published in Vietnam magazine. Visited the original Camerone (Cameron de Tejada) near Cordoba in Mexico in 1997. Still maintain an interest in the Legion as I often travel over its old stomping grounds on trips back to Vietnam. Currently living and working in Korea with a Pendragon who previously served in 2me REI. Perhaps the same one Bloakey is looking for? I'll pass him the post. I did have the good fortune to do the parachute course at Pau with the 6me RPIMa, and am as much a "marsouin-o-phile" as I am a "legio-phile". Were I to be re-born again and allowed a military career, the Legion would certainly be high on my list. But so too would the 11me Choc, 3me RPIMa, 8me RPIMa, 13me RDP. Were I to be warped back in time, WWII and Indochina would be the period, with any of the Legion units, but with a preference for the paras, or as a legionnaire seconded to the Commandos or CSLMs.

...Very interesting résumé...Jezz, Pendragon from 6ème Cie of the 2ème REI...former heli pilot....howz he doing..Jesus !!!I never thought I'd catch up with the dude....so cool, so calm, so collected in the mayhem of the 6ème Cie...PM me on this please

**crazysix0231** · 11th July 2006, 15:54

I was USMC worked with Legion on few occasions, great bunch, definately would want one in my foxhole.

hannibal · 11th July 2006, 18:26

....definately would want one in my foxhole.

He-he-He-He.... I bet you would.... Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha..

[Just a little bit soldiers humour]

**K3v85** · 11th July 2006, 19:52

Still training and learning French, should be going early next year.

**lirelou** · 12th July 2006, 01:41

For Bloakey from Pendragon:

I can be reached at [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Pendragon

**mpluby** · 12th July 2006, 02:08

Getting a Master's Degree and then hopefully trying summer-fall 2007.

**lirelou** · 14th July 2006, 03:10

Hannibal, The Sava Steppanovitch I met had transferred to the U.S. Army in 1964 while a Captain in the French Army. Sent to SF training, and shipped off to Vietnam, he opted to "jump ship" and transfer to Advisroy Team 162 (the ARVN Airborne Division), where he apparently had a lot of old friends. I knew him by reputation, then got to meet him on several occasions in 1985-86 when he was serving in Baden-Baden as the U.S. Army Liaison Officer to the French 1st Army. He retired from the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant Colonel in the early 1990s, but may have been jumped up to Colonel on the retired list as he was probably under the old system. He had supposedly "resigned" from the French Army in 1964, but I suspect that he opted for retirement as he certainly would have been eligible. According to Jean Pouget, Steppanovitch was one of the six junior officers who coordinated the 13 May 1958 coup that toppled the IVth Republic. Jaworski was on my team,and Kurantoweicz was on a neighboring team. The Ivanovs I knew were a Romanian and a Bulgarian, but the old timers tell me there were six Ivan B. Ivanovs in Special Forces at the same time. Back to Steppanovitch, former lieutenant in the WWII Royal Serbian Army, awarded the U.S. Army Bronze Star with "V" (Valour) for rescuing some downed American airmen in WWII (an act that greased his entry into the U.S.Army), served in Indochina with the 13th DBLE. Was at Dien Bien Phu and a photo of him there appears in Stanley Karnow's (sp?) history of Vietnam. ("Wounded FFL Officer at DBP").

**Eagle eye** · 21st July 2006, 17:35

Originally Posted by K3v85

still training and learning French, should be going early next year

....Focus on yer French....

**Bloakey** · 27th July 2006, 22:53

Eagle Eye Wrote:

>
...Very interesting résumé...Jezz, Pendragon from 6ème Cie of the 2ème REI...former heli pilot....howz he doing..Jesus !!!I never thought I'd catch up with the dude....so cool, so calm, so collected in the mayhem of the 6ème Cie...PM me on this please
>

A veritable God so he was.

Now what is this about the 6eme Cie? mayhem??? we were top "dudes" the fact that you had to be over 6 feet to be either Cpl or Sgt de Semain means nothing. As an ex punishment company we had our little foibles and unless you were a driver or a specialist you rarely saw us, you lot had the birds and the beaches, we had errr, errr, the goats and the crags.

Now, do you want to hear about CC Dickman from Domaine St Jean? an ex guard from the punishment company days. He would not talk to us in English and lived in fear of his life, he was a Brit but if you knew Domaine St Jean you would have clocked the prisons cells beneath the buildings. I will take it further in e-mail if you are interested, it would make a good book.

**Eagle eye** · 28th July 2006, 12:20

Originally Posted by Bloakey

Now, do you want to hear about CC Dickman from Domaine St Jean? an ex guard from the punishment company days. He would not talk to us in English and lived in fear of his life, he was a Brit but if you knew Domaine St Jean you would have clocked the prisons cells beneath the buildings. I will take it further in e-mail if you are interested, it would make a good book.

...I visited Domaine St.-Jean while in Corte...I heard about some of the punishment (before or after the Geneva Convention ?..

)...when we visited it we were told that prisoners had hands tied behind their back and skipped around a table taking bites of their respective gamelles as several prisoners skipped around the table at one time....6eCie had a hard reputation in every category starting with the mountain range all around base camp in the valley....I can just imagine taking a mortar baseplate up those mountains....

**kbx** · 11th August 2006, 09:30

I am preparing... aiming for Aubagne in about 2 years, most likely less.

I am impressed at the amount of people planning on joining! Lots of competition, eh?

**repman86** · 17th August 2006, 20:36

I lived in Scunthorpe, in 85 I had just been refused entry into the army for trivia shite. Nowadays they would lay down the carpet for me if it wasn't for my age. Anyway, I was working at the time but I wanted something more, I was just laying in my bed one night and it came to me, **** it , the Legion that's what I'll do as a few months before I'd watched a docu.. on the Legion. So my mind was made up. Don't forget in them bygone days you didn't have the information at the touch of a button so I was quite blind on how I'd get there, but one thing I remember about the docu.. was the city of Marseille. So I got a map and worked out my route, Scunthorpe-Dover-Paris-Marseille, so I jacked my job at the time, broke into my elec meter to recover my little bit extra money of mine that I wasn't giving to the ****in council at the time had a good w/end on the piss spent most of my money but kept enough for the ferry in Dover and a few quid for food and thumbed it from sunny scunny to Marseille. It took me about 12 days, what a ****in adventure that was on its own, that's another story, and joined up, passed out of training straight to 2 REP and the rest is history. If you're going to join for the initial 5 an do it. Good and Bad, I stuck the lot.

**kbx** · 18th August 2006, 12:53

Originally Posted by repman86

I lived in Scunthorpe, in 85 I had just been refused entry into the army for trivia shite. Nowadays they would lay down the carpet for me if it wasn't for my age. Anyway, I was working at the time but I wanted something more, I was just laying in my bed one night and it came to me, **** it , the Legion that's what I'll do as a few months before I'd watched a docu.. on the Legion. So my mind was made up. Don't forget in them bygone days you didn't have the information at the touch of a button so I was quite blind on how I'd get there, but one thing I remember about the docu.. was the city of Marseille. So I got a map and worked out my route, Scunthorpe-Dover-Paris-Marseille, so I jacked my job at the time, broke into my elec meter to recover my little bit extra money of mine that I wasn't giving to the ****in council at the time had a good w/end on the piss spent most of my money but kept enough for the ferry in Dover and a few quid for food and thumbed it from sunny scunny to Marseille. It took me about 12 days, what a ****in adventure that was on its own, that's another story, and joined up, passed out of training straight to 2 REP and the rest is history. If you're going to join for the initial 5 an do it. Good and Bad, I stuck the lot.

It's a lot easier when you live right next to France.

Plus, some of us have medical problems which need fixing. I have to get LASEK/RPK/whatever surgery and wait 12 months after that and do health tests and check my teeth and all that stuff.

I'm not gonna spend like 2 years worth of minimum wage(the plane ticket is so ridiculously expensive it'd be the equivalent of like 15,000 pounds to you) just to get denied because of a small, correctable medical issue.

**repman86** · 20th August 2006, 18:15

Originally Posted by kbx

It's a lot easier when you live right next to France.

Plus, some of us have medical problems which need fixing. I have to get LASEK/RPK/whatever surgery and wait 12 months after that and do health tests and check my teeth and all that stuff.

I'm not gonna spend like 2 years worth of minimum wage(the plane ticket is so ridiculously expensive it'd be the equivalent of like 15,000 pounds to you) just to get denied because of a small, correctable medical issue.

I wasn't dripping I was just givin you all my experience. I have always been fortunate with my health and I had no real ties back then. I've got a plan: put on some cam cream and extreme Islamist rig and spout off about how much you want to destroy the democratic west and Tony Blair will take you into Britain, pay all your medical fees for you then once your sorted make your way to France. Try it, thousands of others do.

**Happy** · 17th September 2006, 02:37

I planned on trying to join the legion but during the week I was diagnosed with arthritis. I hadn't any problems before this and even the doctor was surprised because I'm only 18 and in really good shape from running and kickboxing.