Joining the FFL
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You are currently reading a thread in /k/ - Weapons
I want to join the French Foreign Legion and if someone here is or was enlisted i have some questions (i've read about enlisting on different sites but it seems like too good to be true).
I've always have been a sporty guy, i've never been overweight and shit but my problem is that I am waaaaaaay too short (165-67 cm), basically a fucking manlet. I dont have any problems (medical related), i am fit (i go to gym, run marathons ocasionally, not into drugs except cigarettes which i plan on quitting).
Are there any chances of being accepted in FFL?
>>30008790
Dog, no one on here or the internet will tell you your chances of making it, that's a retarded question.
>>30008790
I have no idea, but anyway if you join the "Legion Étrangère", thank you and be strong, nobody is strong enough for the Legion, they will reprogram you.
>>30008790
Why not join your own nations army? They will ask you this.
>>30008790
I was in the Legion from 03-08, perhaps I can be of some assistance.
Think of getting into the Legion this way: it's a lottery. People get selected or rejected for reasons that are seemingly random, and they probably are, since the chefs who run the place are probably bored and are looking for amusement.
Because the Legion has a large number of applicants for so few spots, they can afford to be incredibly choosy. If they have three spots open that week, then you had better be in the top three of your applicant cohort.
Being short is not a problem. Smoking definitely is.
Power Ranking of Things that Improve your Chances:
1. Being able to speak French
- Enormous gap
2. Being fit
3. Being young
4. Being from a third-world shit hole
5. Being educated
6. Prior military experience
>>30008861
Because my own country's army is shit. I am from Romania.
>>30008909
1. I speak a bit of French, i will improve my french tho, thank you for telling me this.
2. I am
3. I'm 21
4. I am, Romania.
5. I am.
6. I don't have any military experience.
Bump.
Another legionnaire here?
Oboy this thread again
>>30008909
Sort of curious, is the rape & abuse thing true?
Talking about extensive physical abuse.
>>30009185
Don't click it, faggot.
>oboy
>>30008790
I read a book about it once by a former Legionnaire. He had a whole chapter on how to desert because he said that literally everybody tries or wants to desert.
>>30009241
>is the rape & abuse thing true?
Rape? No. I was never sexually assaulted and never saw any of it either. The Legion and the French army in general is very good about allowing its personnel to burn off sexual energy. (read: sanctioned whores)
Abuse? God yes. Your first year to two years will be barely tolerable torture. During instruction, you will be taught via broken French and physical beatings. When you get to your regiment you will be the bottom of the totem pole and you will get more abuse.
When you are no longer the newest man in the regiment, you are expected to do your duty, uphold tradition, and torment the latest new man.
>>30008790
Just admit you want to join so you can shoot the meme gun.
>>30010031
This is true. Any Legionnaire who has never thought of running away is straight-up lying.
>>30010071
Is that a FAL?
>>30010096
FAMOUS
Think there was a thread on here a while back posted by some American guy who actually deserted from the Legion during his leave to Paris or something. Idk legion sounds like a pretty shitty time for no recognition and no reward.
>>30008790
>sporty guy
>>30010071
Aren't they switching away from it?
>>30008965
Join the USMC
You don't have to be an American citizen.
>>30010112
>for no recognition and no reward.
This is precisely why the Legion prefers half-starved guys from Senegal to guys from the US or Britain.
When they found out I was American, I was given a constant stream of shit like
>Hey Rambo, show us how you're going to kill the Taliban by yourself!
or
>Hey Rambo, which medals are you going to get this week?
Then again, I think military glory is pretty much so rare as to be mythical in damn near any military.
>>30010204
You need a green card, pretty tough for a european to get.
>>30010071
Yes I do.
>>30010117
>inb4 faggot
Yeah, i've always been fit. I run a lot, hit the gym and other shits.
>>30010204
How do I get a green card m8? It's allmost impossible for us, romanians.
>>30010079
Why exactly is this the case. Does everyday life just suck to the max? Or is it just that deserting is easier than any other military unit in the world because foreigners can just run back to their home country without fear of legal consequences. I am getting this sense that it's easier to get into the legion and push yourself through training than it is to find the motivation to stay in for the 5 years.
>>30010315
>Does everyday life just suck to the max?
Basically, yes. It's not even constant training, it's the constant corvee. There is very little opportunity for advancement as well, since Legionnaires are not well-respected in the army.
The French run their army under the idea that the enlisted man is basically incapable of thought and that Legionnaires are not only stupid, but destructive.
In all honesty, the only reason I didn't desert is that I wasn't 100% sure I'd get away with it. I would want to say something about being a man and honoring your commitments, but that's BS. The PM takes particular pleasure in kicking the shit out of deserters. They get their sadistic rocks off and no one doubts them when they say, "No, we totally found him this way. He must have fallen down some stairs."
(Consider the kind of beating that is so bad a Legionnaire is hesitant to receive one.)
>>30010315
>I am getting this sense that it's easier to get into the legion and push yourself through training than it is to find the motivation to stay in for the 5 years.
Quite the opposite. Once you're in and there's more of a purpose to the abuse, I mean, instruction, it's a little easier to stick it out. After the first month in instruction, you're thinking there's no possible way you'll survive five years of this.
>>30008790
Hey faggot, if you were serious into this you would have left 4chan for good and would have found some pretty useful and detail pages that are out there on google.
You're just wasting your time, all the info is practical and to the point, read it and save yourself telling everyone about your life.
faggot
>>30010591
I've already read that. You fucking faggot, I just asked for some that already WAS in the legion to clarify some problems, you brainfart dumbshit
Discovered the MAVNI of US army. Sent them an e-mail.
>>30010421
who's responsible for tracking you down? what if you make it out of the country?
>>30010683
They do not chase you too hard but a warrant will go out for your arrest, never go to France ever again or you will be arrested and your life will become hell.
>>30010683
A shady department whose job is precisely to get your ass back wherever you've fled to. Not best kept secret, but enough most French military don't know about, and consists entirely of civilians with zero military background nor relatives so there's no overlap.
Focus is on confirmed traitors, then potential traitors, people holding sensitive information, and finally those whose desertion caused considerable damage. Run of the mill deserters are left alone as long as they don't attract attention.
Anyone else on /k/ actually seriously intending on the FFL?
(ie; not just asking in general terms or thinking about how "cool" it would be.)
I'm working on training now and I hope to leave for Aubagne in February, barring any major mishaps.
>>30010421
>The French run their army under the idea that the enlisted man is basically incapable of thought
well...
>>30013731
All armies accept that enlisted are dumb as shit.
In the US, soldiers are still trained to exercise initiative if the situation presents itself. The French train their soldiers to stand around and get shot at unless an ossifer or noncom tells them to duck. The Legion literally wants human machines.
While I was in Afghanistan, I was sportfucking this adorable Lieutenant in a supply company. She was perpetually amazed at the idea that a Legionnaire could be college educated and well-read. I kind of burst her bubble, since she went in thinking she was slumming with a car thief or something and ended up with someone who, on the outside world, was probably above her station.
Also, don't fuck officers. Just...don't.
>>30008909
I'd bump 4 to 1, or a very close 2. I attempted to join in '07 after spending 8 years in the USAF. Fully fluent in French (studied for 4 years in high school, did a year at Paris-Sorbonne, then went back stateside and enlisted,) fit, only 27 years old, and had a BSCE.
With that, I was one of 9 volunteers going for one slot, and it went to an Iraqi who did two cycles fewer in the luc leger than I did, and spoke no French.
After receiving my inapte definitif, I asked the caporal-chef why. He was also an American. He told me "That boy has no chance if we don't take him. You can take your ass back and get a commission, he doesn't have that opportunity."
Actually took his advice, applied and was accepted to OTS. Hope to pin on major next year. In the end, it was better for me. I framed my discharge form and it hangs on the wall in my office, right next to my commission.
>>30014579
Everyone's Legion experience is different, naturally. I can say from personal experience that the reason I got picked was strictly because I was a fluent French speaker despite being older (23) and fatter than the others in my cohort.
I'm sure other factors played against you. 27 is really damn old and former military means you have ingrained habits they have to break before teaching you the Legion ways.
Still, at least it all worked out for you which is good.
>Air Farce.
>>30014579
yeah honestly 8 years in the AF prob hurt your chances way more than helped you. Thats a career right there. If you had 3 yrs and a dishonorable discharge, that'd be another story.
