March 7, 2013 • 20 mins
Anyone who knows anything about Jean-Claude Van Damme knows he played a French legionnaire in the movies. He was just one of many actors to star in films that romanticized this mercenary force. Check out the details in this episode with Josh and Chuck.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you stuff you should know fro dot com, Josh.
Before we get started, we want to remind our loyal
TV audience. We hear from you guys that say this
show is really growing on me. I'm really liking it
(00:21):
more and more, and we really appreciate that, and we do.
Your last chance to see said shows will be this Saturday,
March night. We got our final marathon coming up. That's right.
It starts at New and Eastern time, that's right, um,
and that's on Science Channel. And it's a whole marathon
featuring some classic episodes uh culpy runs, plus two new episodes,
(00:42):
both written by Mr Charles W. Chuck Bryant, beautiful episodes,
and one of which is the pilot. But even more confusingly,
the fact that we're airing the pilot as the season
finale is that that's not even the pilot pilot. The
pilot pilot what air after that, I believe. Yeah, So
to avoid confusion, it's a little We've got John Hodgman
(01:03):
in in the next of the last episode, Yes, which
is the great one, A lot of fun. It's about
private space exploration, that's right. And then we have the
Originally it was episode one to set up this whole shebang.
They're airing this last which is very unique in television.
And then the lost pilot that we shot like over
a year ago but really not even in the format
of the actual show. Yeah, that we're airing that too,
(01:26):
because what the heck, let's just throw it all at
the well and see with sticks. That's right, So at
noon a clock set your DVRs. Um this will this
will be the last of the the original ten and
plus the bonus season one and dudes and do debts
check it out on Amazon, Instant or Google Play or iTunes,
or watch it live or watch it on your DVR.
(01:48):
And we appreciate the sport. Yeah, and the rest of
the world hanging there. We'll try to get it to
you somehow someway. We're trying. Uh. In the meantime, those
of you in the States. Uh, if you really like
our TV show and you want to more stuff like
behind the scenes clips, videos, read blogs from characters, go
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(02:09):
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Science Channel Facebook page and make a little noise and
keep these guys around. We enjoyed it. Sure couldn't hurt, right,
I don't think so unless Science Channel sends guys to
your house for commenting on their Facebook they welcome that. Ye,
all right, podcast time, let's do it, hey, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and the Ravels w
(02:32):
Chuck Bryant, which makes this stuff. You should know the
Lightning Quick edition. Is this Lightning Quick? Yes? Because of
the lightning. Oh yeah, we have a like tornadoes and
stuff coming in, so it's like holding out of the
Okay Corral as the storm rolls in. But well we'd
also like to get out of the Okay Corral before
the steward Let's get here, you know. That's the point. Yeah,
(02:53):
you were saying, there's a tornado flipping cars on like
seventy five up north apparently. And I know my dog
Buckley is at home just waiting to pee all over
the place when the thunderstarts. So if I can be
there and hold him, he's fine. The French Foreign Legion,
chuck um. They are a fighting force, a military fighting
force that one young man by the name of Jean
(03:14):
Claude van Damme ran off and joined in the movies.
I got you, It totally got me. I was like,
I never knew. Can you imagine? No, he was? It
was in the movies. He wasn't really a legionnaire. What
movie was it? I think Legion was a movie called
Legion Legion never heard of it. But yeah, he's a
(03:35):
he's a legionaire. Actually you can tell, well, you know,
I don't know that there are that many like big fans,
but I'll bet his big fans are like like big
time John Claude van dam Um, like Steven Seagal's fans
probably probably so just a hardcore you know, um. But
you could tell that Jean Claude van dam was in
(03:55):
this movie because he's wearing a hat with the little
cape in the back. Yeah. Is that what it's called? Yeah,
spelled k e P. I pronounced KP. And they still
wear those, and uh, you know it's a it's a
tradition that is still true today. The little flat cap
very stiff and rigid, and uh, they don't always have
the capes, you know, when they're out where they need them,
(04:15):
they will. Well, the reason that they would have them
is because for the better part of two centuries, the
French Foreign Legion was stationed in Algeria. Yeah. Uh. And
the reason they were station there is because that's where
their headquarters were almost from the moment of inception of
this um, this military group. Yeah. And the reason they
(04:36):
were stationed there from inception was because they were a
bunch of ne'er do well criminals in many cases, and
so they're like, you know, you guys are great and
you're super tough. Let's move you to Algeria to help
our colonization efforts and get you out of France. Do
you want to talk about the history first? Yeah, well today,
let's talk about today just for one second. Over there
(04:57):
are seven thousand, two d and eighty six Legionnaires as
of December of last year, and to the date, to
the date the date, thirty thousand have died in battle
over the years. I saw that, which is not that bad.
But it's a small group. You know that seven thousand
isn't much, right, and there they are the fighting force
(05:18):
in the world that have seen more continuous acts than
any other. Yeah, they fight constantly, They've been fighting constantly. Well,
and they're bad dudes like there, they even say in
this article. And they're well known to be much tougher
than the regular French army because they're not French. Well
they're actually I don't know much that has to do
(05:39):
with it, but they're known for being tough dudes. Yeah,
and they're also a special forces unit. Basically, Um, no women.
When we say dudes, we can say dudes. Yeah, there's
never been a Fridge Foreign legionnaire who is a woman. Uh,
and um, they are. They've been in just about every conflict,
(05:59):
um that the French have been in, yeah, since eighteen thirty. Um.
And did you know that the French Foreign legion invaded
Mexico in eighteen sixty one and stayed there until eighteen
sixty five when they're finally beaten back. Yeah. They tried
to assassinate the president and installed in Austrian prince named
Maximilian as the ruler of Mexico, has set it up
(06:20):
as a French puppet state. I wonder if they had
any influence on Culinarily speaking, I don't know. You don't
much French stuff pop up in Mexico like you do
in like Vietnam. During that Colognial period you know, or Indochina. Okay,
So do you want to go to history? Should how
(06:43):
these guys start? Well? In uh eighteen thirty Josh, they
tell you little story about a guy named King Louis Philippe. Uh.
It's known as a July Revolution. He replaced King Charles
ten and X X and H after the Bourbon mon
archy fell and this was Parisian radicals were involved in
this overthrow. So even though he was made king in
(07:08):
large part because of these radicals and because of radicalism,
these radicals were some tough guys and a lot of
them were you know, it kind of brought in this
um criminal element in some cases. And you know, I
don't want to say they were bad guys, but maybe
they were bad guys. Well, the King Louis Philippe thought
(07:29):
that they were a threat to the monarchy because you know,
he had gotten to the throne by these radicals, and
it had attracted radicals from all over Europe and a
lot of them were very soldier like, and he was
like or former soldiers um, and he said, welcome to France.
Let me figure out what to do with you. I
can't legally make you a part of the French army.
(07:50):
So how about I just make a foreign legion made
up of foreign dissidence, foreign nationals, and UM send him elsewhere.
And they for pretty happy with that plan. It was
March of one he laid out his eight articles and
pretty much that was what the foreign legion was from,
who they were to be, where were there to train,
(08:12):
what were there to where? And a lot of the
traditions were established in that very first set of articles UM.
And then included in that, Chuck are, was one that
said that you had to UM to check for a
birth certificate, a certificate of good life manners, and a
certificate from a military authority saying that this person is
(08:33):
a good soldier. And you had to have all that
if you're going to accept the recruit that or um
it was up to the commandants discretion. Yeah, that it
reminded me of like how they'll be a paragraph and
a legal contract that says all these things. At the
very end it will say like or we could just
(08:54):
change our mind about all that, right, So basically, yeah,
we need all these papers and documents, and that was
in our article seven or article six, and then the
seventh article said, or just let them in if you,
you know, have a good feeling about them exactly, and
worry about the papers so much. And that led to
this thing called um and and non nimt nonmat, which
(09:19):
is anonymity in French. Um and it says that you
can join the French Foreign Legion under an assumed name,
because we're going to give you an assumed name one
way or another for the first year of your service
in the French Foreign Legion. You need to basically take
on an assumed name. You're leaving your old identity behind.
(09:41):
And that's a really strange, unusual aspect of the frenchign
legion um that still exists today. Yeah. In fact, it
was mandatory until just a few years ago. Until two
thousand ten, you had to sign up under a different name,
and then at the end of that year you go
through a process called military regularization of the situation, which
(10:05):
basically meant you could get your old papers back from
your home country and go back to your old name.
And you can still do all that. It's just not
mandatory any longer. No UM. But a lot of guys
it's like the fresh start, you know, that's what they're
looking for. A lot of men who joined the army
and that's one of the every country. That's one of
the things that the French Foreign Legion touts when you
when you join it, is that we're a place you
(10:27):
can have a second chance. Yeah, forget your past, even
forget your name, minor criminal records. I mean back in
the day they would accept major criminals. Uh. Now they're
a little more selective and they'll overlook like a minor
criminal record, but nothing like they want to accept murderers
and things like that. And for a very long time, Um,
they would accept nothing, no one but foreign nationals. You
(10:48):
couldn't be French and join the French Foreign Legion. You
can join the army, but not the foreign Legion. Um.
They recently changed that, so you can be French um
and join it, right, Yeah. And you can gain your
French citizenship as a foreign national by serving what three years?
Three years in good standing. And I think you have
(11:09):
to go back to your original name and stuff. Um, yeah,
you if you're going to get citizenship, you can't do
it under your declared name. Um. And you're talking about that, um,
the what was it called where you go through that
that process of the military regularization of the situation it's
(11:29):
such a weird name for name change really is UM.
But it's not just the name change. It's basically like
that represents the end of your first year, and it
represents the end of the French Foreign Legion owning you
during this time. UM. During your first year, you cannot
have a civilian bank account, you can't get married, you
(11:51):
can't wear civilian clothes even off duty. You can't buy
a car, you can't um travel abroad on leave anywhere
but France. You have to wear your uniform all the time. Yeah,
some in some form or fashion you have to wear
a uniform. So yeah, it's UM. They own you for
the first year. It's definitely harder than the French Army.
Like you said, yeah, and whatever status. If you're married
(12:14):
and you join the French Foreign Legion, you have to
enlist as a single man, right, So I don't know
if I guess you can remain married technically, but the
papers say that you're a single man. I would imagine
if you run off to the French Foreign Legion, the
marriage might be on shaky ground as it is, or
you're not married. Yeah, this good point that probably out
(12:35):
of like already married men doesn't seem like a very
family supportive place. It's kind of like, you know, you
are getting away from a situation or something like that. Honey,
I'm gonna have to deny your existence and change my name. Um,
but it's really worth it because I want to be
a legionnaire and where and where the kp right and
gain the respect of the French. You think I'm just kidding. Well,
(12:58):
you know what's funny is they are. I read an article.
There's an article in the December two thou twelve Vanity
Fair called the Expendables. That's pretty interesting. It's about the
French Foreign Legion what they're doing now. Some of that
you remember in our gold Um episode we talked about
illicit gold mining in Guiana. Apparently one of the things
(13:20):
that Foreign Legion is doing now is they're fighting those
gold miners now, shutting that down. That's one of the
things they're doing because Afghanistan's winding down for the French,
so they're kind of looking for new stuff to do,
and that's one of the things up. Uh. Your first
contract if you join up as a legionnaire is a
minimum of five years and pay for a corporal starting
(13:41):
out is one thousand forty three I guess euros per
month plus of course you know all room and board,
but that's your take home pay or not. I don't
know about takeome but that's your salary. And you get
forty five days leave and then you know there is
a path to prosperity to some degree in success US,
just like any other army, you can work your way
(14:03):
up through the officer ranks. And after that first five years,
successive contracts are six months to five years. Uh. And
I don't I'm not sure how they determine that, whether
it's up to you, like if you're like, I just
want to go six months at a time here, guys,
or I'm not sure. I couldn't actually find any information
on that. If they're like, no, you you must sign
(14:25):
for three years, six months whatever. Yeah, they're like you'll
probably be dead by then anyway, so and we'll keep
all of your euros um So in that article, one
of the things I was that I came across was
that the the um the legionnaire's view themselves and apparently
(14:46):
are viewed by the French as That's why the article
is called the Expendables as basically there to fight and
kill and die, and that there's a lot of honor
in dying, even if it's unnecessarily. But they're just they
kind of are nihilistic. I get the impression. And I
think they even used that word their nihilists, well not
(15:10):
say nhilists. Yeah. I did read part of the article though,
and they said that normal people don't join the French
Foreign Legion, right, they said they're all just a little
little off, which, um, you know, good about their tough dudes.
And the Spans. The Spanish tried the same thing in
they tried to form the Spanish Foreign Legion, um, and
it didn't take so now it's just called the Spanish Legion.
(15:32):
It's made up of Spaniards. Yeah. And some folks say
America could try something like a foreign Legion with h
the influx of non Americans in this country to maybe
serve under our regular armies. And uh, I don't know
if that's ever been pitched. Patril citizenship should be in
the Dream Act. Yeah why not, dude, I don't know.
(15:53):
I'm sure people would be like, this is why not? Well, yeah,
you can email us later. Yeah, I didn't consider it. It
It just came to my head. Um, have you got
anything else, No, I want to keep. I'll get you
one for your birthday. Do you remember when those were
like hip in the eighties with the breakdancing? Uh? Yeah,
those are awesome. It's so funny what different cultures latch
onto from different eras. Yes, you know, yeah, somebody said
(16:16):
that will look very cool when I'm doing a headspin.
And the KPE was adopted a break in Ohio, like
the painters cap And when I was just growing up,
the Painter's cap and the bicycle caps were very big
in the eighties. Oh yeah, the bike cap with the billful.
I had a couple of, like Italian ones. I just
thought it was so cool. What was the name of
that one brand that everybody had the bike had, you
(16:40):
know what I'm talking about, trek No, it was like
a French name, I believe. I don't know. Uh, I
think I had one though. I thought, like it's similar
to the word champion, Samano or something. But it wasn't
that Japanese. And I know what you mean, it's gonna
come to me. I wonder if it is Japanese. I'll
bet it's Italian or something. And I'm saying it's Japanese. Shimano. Yeah,
(17:01):
I love it when we do these things that where
we can't think of something because we always get emails
where people like, oh, screaming in my home the name,
We're sorry for all of them. Yeah, that sounds close.
It's not it's that that we're not going to get emails,
but those of you screaming right now, settled down. Grab
You only get Ahold of Yourselves podcast. Uh. If you
(17:22):
want to learn more about the foreign legion, you can
type that word or those words into the search bar
how stuffworks dot com and that will bring up this
fine article. There you go. And I said search bars,
it was time for listener mail. I guess before we
get into that chuck, you want a message from our sponsor.
And now it's time for listener mail. Uh. This is
from Donato and it's about autopsies. Dudes, just finished listening
(17:45):
to the autopsies work. I wanted to mention a couple
of things. I'm currently in law enforcement and have attended
a few of them. My first one was really fascinating.
The emmy tried to get me to vomit by handing
me a brain the past to his assistant, but it
actually really turned out to be extre really exciting for me,
So screw you, Emmy, I'm not vomiting. Look at me,
I'm juggling in s brand Um. I wanted to point
(18:08):
out you did not mention the extraction of vitreous fluid
from the eyeballs using a needle. That part was a
little freaky to me, I have to admit, and after
a couple of times asked why it was done, which
leads me to toxico toxicological toxicological examination. Fluids and samples
(18:29):
from some organs are sent for examination in these cases. Uh,
and in my experience, emmys will not provide a final
autopsy before toxicology results come back. And lastly, the difference
between cause and manner of death c O D and
m O D Uh. They are used interchangeably often, but
c O D is the physiological mechanism responsible for death,
where m O D is the explanation how the c
(18:51):
O D can would be. For example, is physia is
the c O D and murder is the m O D.
If a person is smoldered with their pillow, so c
you can be considered purely medical, while the m O
D is a combination of medical and investigative and evil
and so I hope it did not double tap something
you guys covered. Well, that's an old time your reference.
(19:11):
Nice call out to uh green Barray's uh Delta Delta.
Thank you, Denato, Thanks Denata. Appreciate that he's written in before. Awesome,
Thanks for writing in again. Has he made listener mail before? Uh? No,
I'll tell you what he went wrote in before? After? Okay, Okay,
I just winked it. Um. If you want to write in,
(19:32):
you can write in as many times as possible. See
if you can get on listener mail twice, I don't
think anyone ever has, right, well, Sarah the amazing eleven
twelve now thirteen fourteen, probably fifteen year old. Yeah that's right,
Thank you for correcting me. And Sarah, come on, we
haven't had a letter in a while. Yeah, it's been
a long time. We don't know how drama classes going
and all that. Get on it all right. Uh. If
you want to get in touch with us, you can
(19:53):
tweet to us at s Y s K podcast. You
can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you
should know. You can send us an email to Stuff
Podcast at Discovery dot com, and you can join US
at the Universal Church of Chuck and Josh. Stuff you
should know dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is It How stuff Works dot com.
(20:21):
M
Welcome to you stuff you should know fro dot com, Josh.
Before we get started, we want to remind our loyal
TV audience. We hear from you guys that say this
show is really growing on me. I'm really liking it
(00:21):
more and more, and we really appreciate that, and we do.
Your last chance to see said shows will be this Saturday,
March night. We got our final marathon coming up. That's right.
It starts at New and Eastern time, that's right, um,
and that's on Science Channel. And it's a whole marathon
featuring some classic episodes uh culpy runs, plus two new episodes,
(00:42):
both written by Mr Charles W. Chuck Bryant, beautiful episodes,
and one of which is the pilot. But even more confusingly,
the fact that we're airing the pilot as the season
finale is that that's not even the pilot pilot. The
pilot pilot what air after that, I believe. Yeah, So
to avoid confusion, it's a little We've got John Hodgman
(01:03):
in in the next of the last episode, Yes, which
is the great one, A lot of fun. It's about
private space exploration, that's right. And then we have the
Originally it was episode one to set up this whole shebang.
They're airing this last which is very unique in television.
And then the lost pilot that we shot like over
a year ago but really not even in the format
of the actual show. Yeah, that we're airing that too,
(01:26):
because what the heck, let's just throw it all at
the well and see with sticks. That's right, So at
noon a clock set your DVRs. Um this will this
will be the last of the the original ten and
plus the bonus season one and dudes and do debts
check it out on Amazon, Instant or Google Play or iTunes,
or watch it live or watch it on your DVR.
(01:48):
And we appreciate the sport. Yeah, and the rest of
the world hanging there. We'll try to get it to
you somehow someway. We're trying. Uh. In the meantime, those
of you in the States. Uh, if you really like
our TV show and you want to more stuff like
behind the scenes clips, videos, read blogs from characters, go
to Stuff you Should Know dot Com our website and
just click on the TV show tab. Yeah, and if
(02:09):
you're one of those people that says, hey, the show's
really grown on me, why don't you go to the
Science Channel Facebook page and make a little noise and
keep these guys around. We enjoyed it. Sure couldn't hurt, right,
I don't think so unless Science Channel sends guys to
your house for commenting on their Facebook they welcome that. Ye,
all right, podcast time, let's do it, hey, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and the Ravels w
(02:32):
Chuck Bryant, which makes this stuff. You should know the
Lightning Quick edition. Is this Lightning Quick? Yes? Because of
the lightning. Oh yeah, we have a like tornadoes and
stuff coming in, so it's like holding out of the
Okay Corral as the storm rolls in. But well we'd
also like to get out of the Okay Corral before
the steward Let's get here, you know. That's the point. Yeah,
(02:53):
you were saying, there's a tornado flipping cars on like
seventy five up north apparently. And I know my dog
Buckley is at home just waiting to pee all over
the place when the thunderstarts. So if I can be
there and hold him, he's fine. The French Foreign Legion,
chuck um. They are a fighting force, a military fighting
force that one young man by the name of Jean
(03:14):
Claude van Damme ran off and joined in the movies.
I got you, It totally got me. I was like,
I never knew. Can you imagine? No, he was? It
was in the movies. He wasn't really a legionnaire. What
movie was it? I think Legion was a movie called
Legion Legion never heard of it. But yeah, he's a
(03:35):
he's a legionaire. Actually you can tell, well, you know,
I don't know that there are that many like big fans,
but I'll bet his big fans are like like big
time John Claude van dam Um, like Steven Seagal's fans
probably probably so just a hardcore you know, um. But
you could tell that Jean Claude van dam was in
(03:55):
this movie because he's wearing a hat with the little
cape in the back. Yeah. Is that what it's called? Yeah,
spelled k e P. I pronounced KP. And they still
wear those, and uh, you know it's a it's a
tradition that is still true today. The little flat cap
very stiff and rigid, and uh, they don't always have
the capes, you know, when they're out where they need them,
(04:15):
they will. Well, the reason that they would have them
is because for the better part of two centuries, the
French Foreign Legion was stationed in Algeria. Yeah. Uh. And
the reason they were station there is because that's where
their headquarters were almost from the moment of inception of
this um, this military group. Yeah. And the reason they
(04:36):
were stationed there from inception was because they were a
bunch of ne'er do well criminals in many cases, and
so they're like, you know, you guys are great and
you're super tough. Let's move you to Algeria to help
our colonization efforts and get you out of France. Do
you want to talk about the history first? Yeah, well today,
let's talk about today just for one second. Over there
(04:57):
are seven thousand, two d and eighty six Legionnaires as
of December of last year, and to the date, to
the date the date, thirty thousand have died in battle
over the years. I saw that, which is not that bad.
But it's a small group. You know that seven thousand
isn't much, right, and there they are the fighting force
(05:18):
in the world that have seen more continuous acts than
any other. Yeah, they fight constantly, They've been fighting constantly. Well,
and they're bad dudes like there, they even say in
this article. And they're well known to be much tougher
than the regular French army because they're not French. Well
they're actually I don't know much that has to do
(05:39):
with it, but they're known for being tough dudes. Yeah,
and they're also a special forces unit. Basically, Um, no women.
When we say dudes, we can say dudes. Yeah, there's
never been a Fridge Foreign legionnaire who is a woman. Uh,
and um, they are. They've been in just about every conflict,
(05:59):
um that the French have been in, yeah, since eighteen thirty. Um.
And did you know that the French Foreign legion invaded
Mexico in eighteen sixty one and stayed there until eighteen
sixty five when they're finally beaten back. Yeah. They tried
to assassinate the president and installed in Austrian prince named
Maximilian as the ruler of Mexico, has set it up
(06:20):
as a French puppet state. I wonder if they had
any influence on Culinarily speaking, I don't know. You don't
much French stuff pop up in Mexico like you do
in like Vietnam. During that Colognial period you know, or Indochina. Okay,
So do you want to go to history? Should how
(06:43):
these guys start? Well? In uh eighteen thirty Josh, they
tell you little story about a guy named King Louis Philippe. Uh.
It's known as a July Revolution. He replaced King Charles
ten and X X and H after the Bourbon mon
archy fell and this was Parisian radicals were involved in
this overthrow. So even though he was made king in
(07:08):
large part because of these radicals and because of radicalism,
these radicals were some tough guys and a lot of
them were you know, it kind of brought in this
um criminal element in some cases. And you know, I
don't want to say they were bad guys, but maybe
they were bad guys. Well, the King Louis Philippe thought
(07:29):
that they were a threat to the monarchy because you know,
he had gotten to the throne by these radicals, and
it had attracted radicals from all over Europe and a
lot of them were very soldier like, and he was
like or former soldiers um, and he said, welcome to France.
Let me figure out what to do with you. I
can't legally make you a part of the French army.
(07:50):
So how about I just make a foreign legion made
up of foreign dissidence, foreign nationals, and UM send him elsewhere.
And they for pretty happy with that plan. It was
March of one he laid out his eight articles and
pretty much that was what the foreign legion was from,
who they were to be, where were there to train,
(08:12):
what were there to where? And a lot of the
traditions were established in that very first set of articles UM.
And then included in that, Chuck are, was one that
said that you had to UM to check for a
birth certificate, a certificate of good life manners, and a
certificate from a military authority saying that this person is
(08:33):
a good soldier. And you had to have all that
if you're going to accept the recruit that or um
it was up to the commandants discretion. Yeah, that it
reminded me of like how they'll be a paragraph and
a legal contract that says all these things. At the
very end it will say like or we could just
(08:54):
change our mind about all that, right, So basically, yeah,
we need all these papers and documents, and that was
in our article seven or article six, and then the
seventh article said, or just let them in if you,
you know, have a good feeling about them exactly, and
worry about the papers so much. And that led to
this thing called um and and non nimt nonmat, which
(09:19):
is anonymity in French. Um and it says that you
can join the French Foreign Legion under an assumed name,
because we're going to give you an assumed name one
way or another for the first year of your service
in the French Foreign Legion. You need to basically take
on an assumed name. You're leaving your old identity behind.
(09:41):
And that's a really strange, unusual aspect of the frenchign
legion um that still exists today. Yeah. In fact, it
was mandatory until just a few years ago. Until two
thousand ten, you had to sign up under a different name,
and then at the end of that year you go
through a process called military regularization of the situation, which
(10:05):
basically meant you could get your old papers back from
your home country and go back to your old name.
And you can still do all that. It's just not
mandatory any longer. No UM. But a lot of guys
it's like the fresh start, you know, that's what they're
looking for. A lot of men who joined the army
and that's one of the every country. That's one of
the things that the French Foreign Legion touts when you
when you join it, is that we're a place you
(10:27):
can have a second chance. Yeah, forget your past, even
forget your name, minor criminal records. I mean back in
the day they would accept major criminals. Uh. Now they're
a little more selective and they'll overlook like a minor
criminal record, but nothing like they want to accept murderers
and things like that. And for a very long time, Um,
they would accept nothing, no one but foreign nationals. You
(10:48):
couldn't be French and join the French Foreign Legion. You
can join the army, but not the foreign Legion. Um.
They recently changed that, so you can be French um
and join it, right, Yeah. And you can gain your
French citizenship as a foreign national by serving what three years?
Three years in good standing. And I think you have
(11:09):
to go back to your original name and stuff. Um, yeah,
you if you're going to get citizenship, you can't do
it under your declared name. Um. And you're talking about that, um,
the what was it called where you go through that
that process of the military regularization of the situation it's
(11:29):
such a weird name for name change really is UM.
But it's not just the name change. It's basically like
that represents the end of your first year, and it
represents the end of the French Foreign Legion owning you
during this time. UM. During your first year, you cannot
have a civilian bank account, you can't get married, you
(11:51):
can't wear civilian clothes even off duty. You can't buy
a car, you can't um travel abroad on leave anywhere
but France. You have to wear your uniform all the time. Yeah,
some in some form or fashion you have to wear
a uniform. So yeah, it's UM. They own you for
the first year. It's definitely harder than the French Army.
Like you said, yeah, and whatever status. If you're married
(12:14):
and you join the French Foreign Legion, you have to
enlist as a single man, right, So I don't know
if I guess you can remain married technically, but the
papers say that you're a single man. I would imagine
if you run off to the French Foreign Legion, the
marriage might be on shaky ground as it is, or
you're not married. Yeah, this good point that probably out
(12:35):
of like already married men doesn't seem like a very
family supportive place. It's kind of like, you know, you
are getting away from a situation or something like that. Honey,
I'm gonna have to deny your existence and change my name. Um,
but it's really worth it because I want to be
a legionnaire and where and where the kp right and
gain the respect of the French. You think I'm just kidding. Well,
(12:58):
you know what's funny is they are. I read an article.
There's an article in the December two thou twelve Vanity
Fair called the Expendables. That's pretty interesting. It's about the
French Foreign Legion what they're doing now. Some of that
you remember in our gold Um episode we talked about
illicit gold mining in Guiana. Apparently one of the things
(13:20):
that Foreign Legion is doing now is they're fighting those
gold miners now, shutting that down. That's one of the
things they're doing because Afghanistan's winding down for the French,
so they're kind of looking for new stuff to do,
and that's one of the things up. Uh. Your first
contract if you join up as a legionnaire is a
minimum of five years and pay for a corporal starting
(13:41):
out is one thousand forty three I guess euros per
month plus of course you know all room and board,
but that's your take home pay or not. I don't
know about takeome but that's your salary. And you get
forty five days leave and then you know there is
a path to prosperity to some degree in success US,
just like any other army, you can work your way
(14:03):
up through the officer ranks. And after that first five years,
successive contracts are six months to five years. Uh. And
I don't I'm not sure how they determine that, whether
it's up to you, like if you're like, I just
want to go six months at a time here, guys,
or I'm not sure. I couldn't actually find any information
on that. If they're like, no, you you must sign
(14:25):
for three years, six months whatever. Yeah, they're like you'll
probably be dead by then anyway, so and we'll keep
all of your euros um So in that article, one
of the things I was that I came across was
that the the um the legionnaire's view themselves and apparently
(14:46):
are viewed by the French as That's why the article
is called the Expendables as basically there to fight and
kill and die, and that there's a lot of honor
in dying, even if it's unnecessarily. But they're just they
kind of are nihilistic. I get the impression. And I
think they even used that word their nihilists, well not
(15:10):
say nhilists. Yeah. I did read part of the article though,
and they said that normal people don't join the French
Foreign Legion, right, they said they're all just a little
little off, which, um, you know, good about their tough dudes.
And the Spans. The Spanish tried the same thing in
they tried to form the Spanish Foreign Legion, um, and
it didn't take so now it's just called the Spanish Legion.
(15:32):
It's made up of Spaniards. Yeah. And some folks say
America could try something like a foreign Legion with h
the influx of non Americans in this country to maybe
serve under our regular armies. And uh, I don't know
if that's ever been pitched. Patril citizenship should be in
the Dream Act. Yeah why not, dude, I don't know.
(15:53):
I'm sure people would be like, this is why not? Well, yeah,
you can email us later. Yeah, I didn't consider it. It
It just came to my head. Um, have you got
anything else, No, I want to keep. I'll get you
one for your birthday. Do you remember when those were
like hip in the eighties with the breakdancing? Uh? Yeah,
those are awesome. It's so funny what different cultures latch
onto from different eras. Yes, you know, yeah, somebody said
(16:16):
that will look very cool when I'm doing a headspin.
And the KPE was adopted a break in Ohio, like
the painters cap And when I was just growing up,
the Painter's cap and the bicycle caps were very big
in the eighties. Oh yeah, the bike cap with the billful.
I had a couple of, like Italian ones. I just
thought it was so cool. What was the name of
that one brand that everybody had the bike had, you
(16:40):
know what I'm talking about, trek No, it was like
a French name, I believe. I don't know. Uh, I
think I had one though. I thought, like it's similar
to the word champion, Samano or something. But it wasn't
that Japanese. And I know what you mean, it's gonna
come to me. I wonder if it is Japanese. I'll
bet it's Italian or something. And I'm saying it's Japanese. Shimano. Yeah,
(17:01):
I love it when we do these things that where
we can't think of something because we always get emails
where people like, oh, screaming in my home the name,
We're sorry for all of them. Yeah, that sounds close.
It's not it's that that we're not going to get emails,
but those of you screaming right now, settled down. Grab
You only get Ahold of Yourselves podcast. Uh. If you
(17:22):
want to learn more about the foreign legion, you can
type that word or those words into the search bar
how stuffworks dot com and that will bring up this
fine article. There you go. And I said search bars,
it was time for listener mail. I guess before we
get into that chuck, you want a message from our sponsor.
And now it's time for listener mail. Uh. This is
from Donato and it's about autopsies. Dudes, just finished listening
(17:45):
to the autopsies work. I wanted to mention a couple
of things. I'm currently in law enforcement and have attended
a few of them. My first one was really fascinating.
The emmy tried to get me to vomit by handing
me a brain the past to his assistant, but it
actually really turned out to be extre really exciting for me,
So screw you, Emmy, I'm not vomiting. Look at me,
I'm juggling in s brand Um. I wanted to point
(18:08):
out you did not mention the extraction of vitreous fluid
from the eyeballs using a needle. That part was a
little freaky to me, I have to admit, and after
a couple of times asked why it was done, which
leads me to toxico toxicological toxicological examination. Fluids and samples
(18:29):
from some organs are sent for examination in these cases. Uh,
and in my experience, emmys will not provide a final
autopsy before toxicology results come back. And lastly, the difference
between cause and manner of death c O D and
m O D Uh. They are used interchangeably often, but
c O D is the physiological mechanism responsible for death,
where m O D is the explanation how the c
(18:51):
O D can would be. For example, is physia is
the c O D and murder is the m O D.
If a person is smoldered with their pillow, so c
you can be considered purely medical, while the m O
D is a combination of medical and investigative and evil
and so I hope it did not double tap something
you guys covered. Well, that's an old time your reference.
(19:11):
Nice call out to uh green Barray's uh Delta Delta.
Thank you, Denato, Thanks Denata. Appreciate that he's written in before. Awesome,
Thanks for writing in again. Has he made listener mail before? Uh? No,
I'll tell you what he went wrote in before? After? Okay, Okay,
I just winked it. Um. If you want to write in,
(19:32):
you can write in as many times as possible. See
if you can get on listener mail twice, I don't
think anyone ever has, right, well, Sarah the amazing eleven
twelve now thirteen fourteen, probably fifteen year old. Yeah that's right,
Thank you for correcting me. And Sarah, come on, we
haven't had a letter in a while. Yeah, it's been
a long time. We don't know how drama classes going
and all that. Get on it all right. Uh. If
you want to get in touch with us, you can
(19:53):
tweet to us at s Y s K podcast. You
can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you
should know. You can send us an email to Stuff
Podcast at Discovery dot com, and you can join US
at the Universal Church of Chuck and Josh. Stuff you
should know dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics. Is It How stuff Works dot com.
(20:21):
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