Calling back home and salary

[Superb735]

Greetings to all, i am considering going and trying to join FFL in the summer, but i am still collecting information and trying to plan things out.

So i have two questions for now:

1) First, i would like to know when is the earliest you are able to call,email etc. back home, just to tell them im ok... a week, a month... ?

I've seen answers to a similar question and the answer is usually two months, but has anything changed?

2) Second question relates to salary. I read that until you become a corporal food and accommodation is free of charge. But what happens after that? Is your salary decreased once you're corporal? Are there extra fees that you have to cover with your salary or is it pretty much the same?

Again, i know similar question were probably asked many times, but i just couldn't find any recent ones and i want to know what is the current situation in FFL. Thank you.

 

[dusaboss]

Welcome to forum, zmajÄ￾ik

 

[Joseph Cosgrove]

Greetings to all, i am considering going and trying to join FFL in the summer, but i am still collecting information and trying to plan things out.

So i have two questions for now:

1) First, i would like to know when is the earliest you are able to call,email etc. back home, just to tell them im ok... a week, a month... ?

I've seen answers to a similar question and the answer is usually two months, but has anything changed?

2) Second question relates to salary. I read that until you become a corporal food and accommodation is free of charge. But what happens after that? Is your salary decreased once you're corporal? Are there extra fees that you have to cover with your salary or is it pretty much the same?

Again, i know similar question were probably asked many times, but i just couldn't find any recent ones and i want to know what is the current situation in FFL. Thank you.

Don't apologize for asking a question that has already been asked. Why because things may have changed. No big deal really. It's you that counts and you've got a question.

As for contacting your family/girlfriend and so on make sure that you explain how things work during recruitment, no cell phones, internet and such like for an uncertain period. BUT if they do not hear from you for at least a month that is a very good sign.

As for the salary of a CPL, you will have to ask some of the guys who are in nowadys if they have to pay for their meals. CCH yes they do, CPLs I doubt it. But either way you will be earning enough to pay for your meals and still be getting more than a 1st class legionnaire. Otherwise who would want to go through 2 months of B*llbreaking and then be given responsability to be getting paid less ?!

 

[loustic]

Go to the Legion recruitment web page and you will have all the answers to your questions

As for communications : nothing (in my time) during selection and instruction. Nowadays, a first message can be sent (if the CPL is kind) after you get your Képi Blanc (one month after selection is over)

 

[Superb735]

Welcome to forum, zmajÄ￾ik

Thank you brat

Don't apologize for asking a question that has already been asked. Why because things may have changed. No big deal really. It's you that counts and you've got a question.

Yes, i ask this because things might have changed in the past few years.

As for contacting your family/girlfriend and so on make sure that you explain how things work during recruitment, no cell phones, internet and such like for an uncertain period. BUT if they do not hear from you for at least a month that is a very good sign.

I wont get homesick or anything, but my parents are not very healthy, so just wouldn't want them to worry to much in the beginning. If im lucky enough to join FFL they would get used to it over time.

As for the salary of a CPL, you will have to ask some of the guys who are in nowadys if they have to pay for their meals. CCH yes they do, CPLs I doubt it. But either way you will be earning enough to pay for your meals and still be getting more than a 1st class legionnaire. Otherwise who would want to go through 2 months of B*llbreaking and then be given responsability to be getting paid less ?!

Makes sense. Thx for the answer.

As for communications : nothing (in my time) during selection and instruction. Nowadays, a first message can be sent (if the CPL is kind) after you get your Kepi Blanc (one month after selection is over)

Yea, the answer seems to be about two months... that is if you're selected.

Thank you loustic.

 

[robnunya]

Hi Superb,

After their Képi blanc march (which will be about a month after getting to the farm) the legionnaires are allowed into town where they are able to make a phone call from a call box for about 5 minutes.

Bear in mind that the wild card is the time spent at the recruiting station and at Aubagne as transfers between the bases are only done on a Thursday currently (my son was delayed by an additional two weeks on his way to Castelnaudary) so be prepared in case this happens but as pointed out by Loustic no news is good news.


A couple of weeks after the initial calls you are allowed to buy a very basic cell phone (no camera, wifi or Bluetooth).

You can buy a pay as you go card but I would also suggest that you subscribe to a call back service like Alliance which will allows you to make a dropped call to a prescribed number which then calls you back and after you enter your pin code you can then call any number in the world and it will be charged to your credit card at a significantly reduced rate when compared to international cellphone rates.

The cell phones are only given to the legionnaires at the weekend and are then locked in an ammunition box which is kept by the Caporal during the week.

Once you get to your regiment you can then ask permission to get a smart phone and a laptop whereafter communication with your family will normalize.

I hope that this is of some help.

Regards, Rob

 

[Rapace]

The rule in the French military (including the Legion) is that les militaires du rang (up to and including the rank of caporal-chef) are accommodated and fed at no cost inside the base. There might be exception however for ‘old’ CCHs which, to some extent may be treated as NCOs.
For NCOs (from Sergent to Major), as long as you are single, you may request to be accommodated in the base (normally in a special building called bâtiment cadres celibataires), but you have to pay a (generally small) fee for your room. As for food, you also have to pay for your meals at the mess hall.
Married NCOs and Officers (regardless of their marital status) have to live outside the base. They also have to pay for their meals taken at the mess hall (generally lunch, since, unless on duty, they'll have their dinner at home).

 

[sombrerox]

Greetings to all, i am considering going and trying to join FFL in the summer, but i am still collecting information and trying to plan things out.

So i have two questions for now:

1) First, i would like to know when is the earliest you are able to call,email etc. back home, just to tell them im ok... a week, a month... ?

I've seen answers to a similar question and the answer is usually two months, but has anything changed?

2) Second question relates to salary. I read that until you become a corporal food and accommodation is free of charge. But what happens after that? Is your salary decreased once you're corporal? Are there extra fees that you have to cover with your salary or is it pretty much the same?

Again, i know similar question were probably asked many times, but i just couldn't find any recent ones and i want to know what is the current situation in FFL. Thank you.

Before YOU can phone or send SMS home it will take some time, 4-5 months probably, until you have finished basic, but people go home every day and you can write a message on a piece of paper along with a number and when people are leaving you can ask them to send an SMS in your name and just give them the paper with message and a number.

 

[Joseph Cosgrove]

The rule in the French military (including the Legion) is that les militaires du rang (up to and including the rank of caporal-chef) are accommodated and fed at no cost inside the base. There might be exception however for ‘old’ CCHs which, to some extent may be treated as NCOs.
For NCOs (from Sergent to Major), as long as you are single, you may request to be accommodated in the base (normally in a special building called bâtiment cadres celibataires), but you have to pay a (generally small) fee for your room. As for food, you also have to pay for your meals at the mess hall.
Married NCOs and Officers (regardless of their marital status) have to live outside the base. They also have to pay for their meals taken at the mess hall (generally lunch, since, unless on duty, they'll have their dinner at home).

At Fort de Nogent, REP and 1er RE the caporaux-chefs (in French, caporaux is the plural for caporal) have to pay for their meals.
It has to be said however in 1er RE and REP the Cchs have their own dining room and there is usually a waterhole available. You buy tickets at the Cchs ‘popote’ unless you are on duty, notably the weekends, where you get a special ticket.
But I don't think that's a problem to worry about for the new guys for a while.

 

[loustic]

Before YOU can phone or send SMS home it will some time, 4-5 months probably, until you have finished basic, but people go home every day and you can write a message on a piece of paper along with a number and when people are leaving you can ask them to send an SMS in your name and just give them the paper with message and a number.

If your CPL or your SGT catches you trying to sneak a piece of paper out when you are supposed to remain "incommunicado", I wish you well. Sombrerox, you are not in yet and you prepare your way to "la taule" already ?

 

[Moonunit]

My mate joined mid August and got his Képi in mid November, so 12 weeks of radio silence. After that he posted pictures on Facebook via mobile, so I guess he got his phone back.

 

[DCLXVI]

You can eat regardless of rank and no, you can't just find a phone after your KBR. Sorry, but that's just nonsense and every company and even section,DEPENDING, HAS A DIFFERENT demise in a different placeEVERY TIME.

 

[sombrerox]

If your CPL or your SGT catches you trying to sneak a piece of paper out when you are supposed to remain "incommunicado", I wish you well. Sombrerox, you are not in yet and you prepare your way to "la taule" already ?

What people don't know, it never happened, for shit people do in Las Vegas I'm not so sure, unlike the popular saying

 

[loustic]

What people don't know, it never happened, for shit people do in Las Vegas I'm not so sure, unlike the popular saying

If you join the Legion, it is to start a new life. Try to do it according to the rules, honestly !

 

[sombrerox]

If you join the Legion, it is to start a new life. Try to do it according to the rules, honestly !

Stop making a big fuss out of it, having someone send a message in your name to your family that you are "OK" is not that big of a deal, you are a ****en EV, not even in basic yet.

 

[Hansenmann]

Stop making a big fuss out of it, having someone send a message in your name to your family that you are "OK" is not that big of a deal, you are a ****en EV, not even in basic yet.

There's no point in doing it though...
You'd be able to contact your family back home after basic training later and tell them you're OK and that you're wearing a Képi Blanc (that is if you complete the Marche Képi Blanc of course)
Anyways if you join the Legion (or any military for that matter), you should be prepared to spend less time with your family than you'd normally do. Probably much less in the Legion than if you were serving in your own country. But you get a new family too!

 

[sombrerox]

There's no point in doing it though...
You'd be able to contact your family back home after basic training later and tell them you're OK and that you're wearing a Képi Blanc (that is if you complete the Marche Képi Blanc of course)
Anyways if you join the Legion (or any military for that matter), you should be prepared to spend less time with your family than you'd normally do. Probably much less in the Legion than if you were serving in your own country. But you get a new family too!

You don't do shit, other people do it in your name, as a favor, for which you give them your "thanks". And maybe later you can return the favor, world is small.

 

[loustic]

Stop making a big fuss out of it, having someone send a message in your name to your family that you are "OK" is not that big of a deal, you are a ****en EV, not even in basic yet.

By the way, what do you exactly mean by "you are a ****en EV, not even in basic yet." ????????????

 

[Joseph Cosgrove]

By the way, what do you exactly mean by "you are a ****en EV, not even in basic yet." ????????????

Sombrerox, you have to learn to wind in your neck i.e. keep a lower profile. Green means that the person is actual of ex-legionnaire. E. V. means engagé volontaire which ,means that the recruit has joined the Legion voluntarily. Loustic was an EV and then became a legionnaire and then became a legionnaire para.

There is no big fuss about you wanting to contact your family that you are alright, it's only normal. What has been said though is it's not easy to do at all. If you join at Paris send everyone an sms from a bistrot whilst drinking a coffee telling them that you are going to knock on the door and it may be a few months before you can get back to them. No news is good news, tell them.

If you start asking around how to get a message home in Aubagne it will not go down well. Just a word of warning, that's all.

 

[sombrerox]

By the way, what do you exactly mean by "you are a ****en EV, not even in basic yet." ????????????

It stands for “you're a fuc*ing Engagé Volontaire, not even in basic yet (as in, still not in basic). “En tauleâ€￾ is a term far away from EV.

Sombrerox, you have to learn to wind in your neck i.e. keep a lower profile. Green means that the person is actual of ex-legionnaire. E. V. means engagé volontaire which ,means that the recruit has joined the Legion voluntarily. Loustic was an EV and then became a legionnaire and then became a legionnaire para.

There is no big fuss about you wanting to contact your family that you are alright, it's only normal. What has been said though is it's not easy to do at all. If you join at Paris send everyone an sms from a bistrot whilst drinking a coffee telling them that you are going to knock on the door and it may be a few months before you can get back to them. No news is good news, tell them.

If you start asking around how to get a message home in Aubagne it will not go down well. Just a word of warning, that's all.

That's fair, a warning is a warning, but asking someone who you befriend in the mean time and is now being sent home for one reason or another to send a single SMS to your home place with "All is good", is it really that much of a deal? This happened in Paris, not in Aubagne anyway. I don't see a reason for Loustic to jump on my back for that "big" of a deal. I'm pretty sure there are worse shits people do compared to having your fellow send a message in your name once he is out.