# If joining the US military isn't your thing...



## Marauder06 (Nov 15, 2015)

...there's always the French Foreign Legion.

But then again, most of the people running their mouths on Facebook right now were never serious about doing either.



> If you really wanted to get in the fight, the opportunities have been there for you to do so.


^too true...


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## LibraryLady (Nov 16, 2015)

Of course, the masses don't realize it's tougher to get into the FFL than our own Marines...  :-"

LL


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## ThunderHorse (Nov 22, 2015)

LibraryLady said:


> Of course, the masses don't realize it's tougher to get into the FFL than our own Marines...  :-"
> 
> LL


Their basic training is not...fun


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## Grunt (Nov 22, 2015)

Marauder06 said:


> ...But then again, most of the people running their mouths on Facebook right now were never serious about doing either...



Yep...keyboard commandos...legends in their own minds!


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## Gunz (Nov 23, 2015)

I toyed with this years ago, post Vietnam, as well as some Rhodesian opportunities. The FFL is a 5-year committment with very little leave. Basic is 15 weeks, probably a bit more demanding than US Marine bootcamp. Not all that hard to get in initially, though, but you have to find your own way to France. That, in itself, may be too much of a challenge for most keyboard commandos. They would have to leave their Mommas.

French Foreign Legion


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## LibraryLady (Nov 23, 2015)

Ocoka One said:


> ... Not all that hard to get in initially...





LibraryLady said:


> Of course, the masses don't realize it's tougher to get into the FFL than our own Marines...  :-"...



To go into more detail.  A friend of ours, who is a Marine with combat time, was rejected by the FFL because his feet were too flat, though the US Marines had no problem with them.  No waivers in the FFL either.  The NCO's of the FFL were quite disappointed. 

LL


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## Gunz (Nov 23, 2015)

LibraryLady said:


> To go into more detail.  A friend of ours, who is a Marine with combat time, was rejected by the FFL because his feet were too flat, though the US Marines had no problem with them.  No waivers in the FFL either.  The NCO's of the FFL were quite disappointed.
> 
> LL


 
That's crazy. They'll take anybody between 17.5 and 39.5 no questions asked and they turn down a combat Marine because his feet are too flat!?! That's discrimination. No wonder I don't like the French.


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## x SF med (Nov 23, 2015)

Ocoka One said:


> That's crazy. They'll take anybody between 17.5 and 39.5 no questions asked and they turn down a combat Marine because his feet are too flat!?! That's discrimination. No wonder I don't like the French.



The FFL has actually gotten very strict about entry into their ranks over the past decade or two, they are really trying to change their perceived "criminal" makeup...  They are tougher on their psych intake than the USMC, and the 'no waiver' policy means PULHES must = 111111 or you are a no-go.


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## ThunderHorse (Nov 23, 2015)

Ocoka One said:


> That's crazy. They'll take anybody between 17.5 and 39.5 no questions asked and they turn down a combat Marine because his feet are too flat!?! That's discrimination. No wonder I don't like the French.


Long gone are the days of no questions asked, and the shape you must be when you start training from what I saw when I was on exchange in 2009 is what Marines come out of MCRD when they're done with boot.  

Also...they get 45 days worth of leave a year, no idea where they don't get much time off came from.  For the most part they get a great location for garrison life.


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## Gunz (Nov 25, 2015)

ThunderHorse said:


> Also...they get 45 days worth of leave a year, no idea where they don't get much time off came from...


 
I guess it came from me being lost in the past. In the mid to late 70's when I was considering options, leave in the FFL was rare to nonexistent for the first few years of a Legionairre's enlistment. In fact the Legion, in deference to normal biological impulses, actually subsidized its' own brothels. I suspect desertions, which were not uncommon then, led to revision of leave policy. In the 70s and 80's the FFL was a more brutal experience, at least unofficially, and I know human rights groups were putting pressure on it to change.

Incidentally, even Parris Island was a more unofficially brutal place in the 1970's. Times change.


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## Ooh-Rah (Jan 18, 2016)

Thought I remembered a recent post on the FFL - they have their deadly training accidents too.

RIP gentlemen.

Avalanche kills 5 French Foreign Legion soldiers


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## Red Flag 1 (Jan 19, 2016)

Ooh-Rah said:


> Thought I remembered a recent post on the FFL - they have their deadly training accidents too.
> 
> RIP gentlemen.
> 
> Avalanche kills 5 French Foreign Legion soldiers



Rest In God's Own Peace, Legionaires.


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