Selects: Do People Really Run Off to Join the French Foreign Legion?

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 classic episode with Josh and Chuck.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello folks, and happy Saturday to you. This week's Selects
episode is my pick. This is Chuck by the Way,
and I'm going to go with do people really run
off to join the French Foreign Legion or more typically said,
do people really run off to join the French Foreign Legion?
Is from March seventh, twenty thirteen, and honestly I picked

(00:23):
this one because it was kind of a cool episode
that I didn't know much about the French Foreign Legion
aside from those supercowl hats that you get when you
sign up, and people do really run off to join
the French Foreign Legion. That's the spoiler. So check it
out and enjoy. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know a

(00:44):
production of iHeartRadio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark and there's twelves will be Chuck Bryant, which
makes this Stuff you Should Know The Lightning Quick Edition?
Is this Lightning Quick? Yes? Because of lightning? Oh yeah,
we have a like tornadoes and stuff coming in, so

(01:07):
it's like holding out at the Okay Corral as the
storm rolls in. But well, we'd also like to get
out of the Okay Corral before the storm was getting here,
you know, that's the point. Yeah, you were saying there
was 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,

(01:27):
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 Claude van dam ran
off and joined. Did he really in the movies? Crap?
I got you. It totally got me. I was like,
I never knew. Can you imagine? No, he was? It

(01:48):
was in the movies. He wasn't really a legionaire. It's
a bummer. What movie was it? I think legion? Was
there a movie called Legion or Legionaire? Never heard of it.
But yeah, he's a he's a legionaire. He can he is?
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 Daman, Oh yes, um, like Steven Seagal's fans probably, yeah, probably,

(02:13):
so just a hardcore you know yeah. Um, but you
could tell that John Claude van Dam was in this
movie because he's wearing a hat with a little cape
in the back. Yeah. The KP is that what it's called. Yeah,
spelled k EPI pronounced kpe. 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

(02:33):
and rigid. Ye. And uh, they don't always have the capes,
you know, when they're out where they need them, 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 stationed there is because that's where their headquarters were
almost from the moment of inception of this um, this

(02:56):
military group. Yeah. And the reason they were stay they're
from inception was because they were a bunch of ne'er
do well criminals in many cases, and so they're like,
you know what, you guys are great and you're super tough.
Let's move you to Algeria. Yeah, 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

(03:18):
talk about today just for one second. Over there are
seven thousand, two hundred and eighty six Legionnaires as of
December of last year to twenty twelve and to the date,
to the date, to this date, uh, thirty five thousand
have died in battle over the years. I saw that,
which is not that bad. But it's a small group,
you know, they're seven thousand isn't much, right, and they

(03:39):
they are the fighting force in the world that has
seen more continuous action than any other. Oh really, yeah,
they fight constantly. They've been fighting constantly. Well, and they're
bad dudes. Yeah, like they're they even say in this article.
And they're well known to be much tougher than the
regular French army, right because they're not well they're actually

(04:01):
I don't know much that has to do with it,
but they're known for being tough dudes. Yeah, and they're
also a special forces unit. Yeah, basically, no women. When
we say dudes, we can say dudes. Yeah, there's never
been a Fridge foreign Legionnaire who's a woman, and they are.
They've been in just about every conflict that the French

(04:24):
have been in. Yeah, since eighteen thirty 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. No, I didn't know. Yeah, they
tried to assassinate the president and install an Austrian prince
named Maximilian as the ruler of Mexico. Has set it
up as a French puppet state. I wonder if that

(04:46):
had any influence on Culinarily speaking, I don't know French food.
You don't see much French stuff pop up in Mexico
like you do in like Vietnam during that colonial period,
you know, or Indos. Yeah? Why s k okay? So

(05:24):
do you want to go to the history? Should we
start out how these guys start? Well? In uh eighteen thirty, Josh,
we tell you a little story about a guy named
King Louis Philippe. Okay, Uh, it's known as the July Revolution.
He replaced King Charles ten and X X and H
after the Bourbon monarchy fell, and this was Parisian radicals

(05:46):
were involved in this overthrow. So even though he was
made king in 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 criminal element in some cases. Yeah, and
you know, I don't want to say they were bad guys,

(06:07):
but maybe they were bad guys. Well. The King Louis
Philippe thought 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 yeah,
and he was like or former soldiers period, and he said,
welcome to France. Let me figure out what to do

(06:29):
with you. I can't legally make you a part of
the French army. Yeah, so how about I just make
a foreign legion made up of foreign dissidents, foreign nationals
and send him elsewhere. And they were pretty happy with
that plan. It was March of eighteen thirty one. Yeah,
he laid out his eight articles and pretty much that

(06:51):
was what the foreign legion was from, who they were
to be, where were they were to train, 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 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

(07:15):
a military authority saying that this person is a good soldier.
And you had to have all that if you were
going to accept a recruit that or um. It was
up to the commandant's 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

(07:35):
it'll say like or we could just 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 right about them exactly. And I worry
about the papers so much. And that led to this

(07:56):
thing called UM and known nimatmat yes, which is anonymity
in French. 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

(08:17):
Foreign Legion. You need to basically take on an assumed name.
You're leaving your old identity behind. And that's a really strange,
unusual aspect of the Legion that still exists today. Yeah.
In fact, it was mandatory until just a few years ago.
Until twenty ten, you had to sign up under a

(08:40):
different name, and then at the end of that year
you could go through a process called military regularization of
the situation, which basically meant you could get your old
papers back from your home country and go back to
your old name. Right, And you can still do all that,
it's just not mandatory any longer. No, But a lot
of guys it's like the fresh start, you know. Yeah,

(09:02):
that's what they're looking for. A lot of men who
join 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's that we're a
place you 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. Now they're
a little more selective and they'll overlook like a minor

(09:23):
criminal record, but nothing like they want accept murderers and
things like that. Right, And for a very long time,
they would accept nothing, no one but foreign nationals. You
couldn't be French and join the French Foreign Legion. Yeah,
you could join the army, but not the foreign Legion. Right.
They recently changed that, so you can be French and
enjoin it, right, Yeah, And you can gain your French

(09:44):
citizenship as a foreign national by serving what three years?
Three years in good standing? Yeah, and I think you
have to go back to your original name and stuff. Yeah,
you if you're going to get citizenship, you can't do
it under your declared name. Right. And you're talking about
that the what was it called where you go through

(10:07):
that process of the military regularization of the situation. Right,
it's such a weird name for name change. It 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. During your first year, you cannot

(10:30):
have a civilian bank account, you can't get married, you
can't wear civilian clothes even off duty. You can't buy
a car, you can't travel abroad on leave to anywhere
but France. You have to wear your uniform. Yeah, all
the time. Yeah, in some form or fashion you have
to wear a uniform. So yeah, it's um they own

(10:52):
you for the first year. It's definitely harder than the
French Army. Like you said, yeah, and whatever status. If
you're married 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,

(11:13):
probably the marriage might be on shaky ground as it is,
or you're not married. Yeah, this good point. They're probably
not of like already married men. Doesn't seem like a
very family supportive place. Yeah, 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,
but it's really worth it because I want to be

(11:34):
a legionnaire and where and where the kp right and
gain the respect of the French. You think I'm just kidding, Well,
you know what's funny is they are I read an article.
There's an article in the December twenty twelve Vanity Fair
called the Expendables. That's pretty interesting. It's about the French
Foreign Legion what they're doing now. Yeah, I saw some
of that. You remember in our gold episode talked about

(12:00):
illicit gold mining in Guiana. Yeah, apparently one of the
things that Foreign Legion's 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 new guys to go
beat up. Right, Your first contract if you join up
as a legionnaire, is a minimum of five years and

(12:23):
pay for a corporal starting out is one forty three
I guess euros per month plus of course, you know
all room and board, but that's your take onme pay
right 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 just like any other army, you

(12:45):
can work your way up through the officer ranks and
after that first five years, successive contracts are six months
to five years and 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 of time here, guys, gotcha?
Or I'm not sure. I couldn't actually find any information
on that. If they're like, no, you you must sign

(13:08):
for three years, right, six months whatever. Yeah, they're like
you'll probably be dead by then anyway, so and we'll
keep all of your euros. So in that article, one
of the things I was that I came across was
that the the the legionnaires view themselves and apparently are

(13:30):
viewed by the French as that's why the articles called
the expendables as basically there to fight and kill and die, yeah,
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. They're nihilists really, well hilists, not say nihilists. Yeah.

(13:54):
I did read part of the article though, and they
said that normal people don't join the French form legion right.
They said they're all just a little little off, yeah,
which you know, good about. They're tough dudes, yeah, and
the span The Spanish tried the same thing in nineteen
twenty they tried to form the Spanish Foreign Legion and
it didn't take so now it's just called the Spanish Legion.

(14:15):
It's made up of Spaniards. Yeah. And some folks say
America could try something like a foreign legion with the
influx of non Americans in this country to maybe serve
under our regular armies. And I don't know if that's
ever been pitched. Patial citizenship should be in the Dream Act. Yeah,
why not, dude, I don't know. I'm sure people would

(14:37):
be like, this is why not? Well, yeah, you can
email us later. Yeah. I didn't consider it. It just
came to my head. Um, you got anything else? No,
I want a KPE. 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,

(14:58):
you know, yes, somebody said that will look very cool
when I'm doing a headspin. Yeah, and the KPE was adopted.
Awesome breaking Ohio, like the Painter's cap and uh. When
I was just growing up, the painter's cap and the
bicycle caps were very big in the eighties. Oh yeah,
the bike caps with the billful. I had a couple of,
like Italian ons. I just thought it was so cool.

(15:19):
What was the name of that one brand that everybody
had the bike had, you know what I'm talking about,
trek No, it was like a French name, I believe. Oh,
I don't know. Uh, I think I had one though.
I thought like, it's similar to the word champion, shamano
or something. But it wasn't that Japanese. And I know
what you mean, it's gonna come to me. I wonder

(15:39):
if it is Japanese. I'll bet it's Italian or something,
and I'm saying it's Japanese shimano. Yeah. I love it
when we do these things though, 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 Yeah, that sounds close. It's not. It's not so
close that that we're not going to get emails. But

(16:00):
those of you screaming right now, settle down, grab you
only get a hold of yourselves podcast If you want
to learn more about the foreign legion. You can type
that word or those words into the search barhostuffworks dot
com and that will bring up this fine article. There
you go, and I said search bar. So it was
time for listener mail. I guess before we get into
that chuck, you want a message from our sponsor. Let's

(16:20):
do that watch SKA should know. And now it's time

(16:42):
for listener mail. Yeah, this is from Donato and it's
about autopsies. Dudes, just finished listening to how on 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, like handing me a brain to
pass to his assistant, but it actually really turned out

(17:04):
to be extremely exciting for me. So screw you, emmy.
I'm not vomiting. Look at me. I'm juggling in sprain.
I'm excited. I wanted to point 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 to

(17:25):
toxicological Toxicological examination. Fluids and samples from some organs are
sent for examination in these cases, and in my experience,
Emmy's will not provide a final autopsy before toxicology results
come back. And lastly, the difference between cause and manner

(17:45):
of death COD and m D. They are used interchangeably often,
but COD is the physiological mechanism responsible for death, where
MD is the explanation how the COD came to be.
For example, asphyxia is the COD and is the MD
if a person is smothered with their pillow gota. So
CD can be considered purely medical, while the MD is

(18:07):
a combination of medical and investigative and evil and evil.
So I hope it did not double tap something you
guys covered. Oh that's an old timing reference. Nice call
out to green Berets Delta Delta Force. Thank you, Donado,
Thanks Donato. Appreciate that he's written in before. Awesome, Thanks
for writing in again. Has he made listener mail before? No,

(18:29):
I'll tell you what he wrote in before after. Okay, Okay,
I just winked at chuck Um. If you want to
write in 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, thirteen, fourteen,
probably fifteen year old. Yeah, that's right, Thank you for
correcting me. And Sarah, come on, we haven't had a

(18:51):
letter in a while. Yeah, it's been a long time.
We don't know how drama class is going and all that. Ease,
get on it all right. If you want to get
in touch with this, you can tweet to us at
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slash Stuff you Should Know, and you can join us
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(19:12):
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