French Foreign Legion

French Foreign Legion, an elite military force originally consisting of foreign volunteers in the pay of France but now comprising volunteer soldiers from any nation, including France, for service in France and abroad. Created as a temporary expedient in a French army that otherwise barred foreigners from serving in its ranks, the French Foreign Legion eventually gained a reputation as the world’s premier mercenary corps. For most of its history, the legion also maintained the exceptional status of being a voluntary unit in a conscript army. It lost this distinction when France abandoned conscription in the early 21st century, but it retained its elite status nevertheless. Today, with a strength of approximately 8,000 men, the Foreign Legion is one of the French army’s preferred units for overseas service. It saw action in the Persian Gulf War of 1990–91 and has since been sent often to Africa, as well as to Southeast Asia, the Balkans, and Afghanistan.

The legion today

Men between the ages of 17 and 40, of any nationality, may join the legion. Recruits enlist under an assumed name—a requirement known as the anonymat—but a legionnaire may request to serve under his true name after a year of service. Although the legion shields every legionnaire’s privacy, each prospective recruit is thoroughly interrogated to discover his motivation for joining the legion and to determine whether he has a criminal background. Those who have had minor scrapes with the law are acceptable—even preferred—as they are assumed to be more willing to turn their backs on their former lives and fully integrate into life in the legion; serious criminals, however, are unwelcome. Recruitment patterns reflect the political turmoil of the time. However, care is taken to have a mix of nationalities. Legionnaires of European descent predominate, and Frenchmen remain well represented in the ranks, either because they seek to belong to an elite corps of the French army or because a criminal record makes them ineligible for service in regular French units. Some foreigners enlist in the hope of gaining French citizenship, for which they are eligible at the completion of three years’ service.

Those selected sign a five-year enlistment contract and are dispatched for basic training (including French-language instruction, if needed) with the 4th Foreign Regiment, based at Castelnaudary, France. During basic training, new legionnaires are awarded the traditional white cap, the képi blanc, in an impressive torchlight ceremony, although the green beret remains the legion’s battle-dress headgear. Legionnaires chosen for the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment, based at Calvi in Corsica, are sent for paratroop training at the French airborne school at Pau. Otherwise, they are assigned to the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment at Nîmes (France); the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment in French Guiana; the 13th Demi-Brigade in Djibouti; the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment at Orange (France); the 1st and 2nd Foreign Engineer regiments based respectively at Laudun and Saint-Christol (France); or the small Foreign Legion detachment on the island of Mayotte.

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Although legionnaires may be of any nationality, all legion officers are French-born or naturalized citizens, many the elite of Saint-Cyr, the French military academy at Coëtquidan. Approximately one-tenth of the officers are former noncommissioned officers (NCOs). A legionnaire may become a corporal after two years’ service. A corporal with three years’ service may become a sergeant, the lowest NCO rank. Higher NCO rank is reserved for reenlisted legionnaires.

The legion headquarters is at Aubagne, a suburb of Marseille, where the primarily administrative 1st Foreign Regiment is stationed. Prospective recruits are sent from recruitment depots in France’s major cities (it is impossible to enlist abroad) to Aubagne, where they undergo the selection process. Aubagne also is home to the legion’s archives and museum, and it is where the legion’s magazine, Képi blanc (“White Kepi”), which first appeared in 1947, is published.

The legion’s monument of the dead at Aubagne—originally built in Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria, for the legion’s 1931 centennial—remains the focus of celebrations each April 30, the anniversary of the battle of Camerone (Camarón, Mexico) in 1863, in which about two-thirds of a company of 65 legionnaires perished while defending themselves against a much larger contingent of the Mexican army. During the celebrations, the wooden prosthetic hand of the company’s captain, Jean Danjou, is taken out of the crypt of the museum and paraded down the voie sacrée (“sacred way”) before a column of slow-marching, bearded sappers with axes at shoulder arms, and a description of the battle is recited by a senior NCO. To be selected to carry the hand of Danjou is a great honour. The legion’s burial ground—also originally located at Sidi Bel Abbès—and its convalescent and retirement home are located at Puyloubier, near Aix-en-Provence.