America S Foreign Legion

This book gives the reader a straightforward and continuous survey of the history of the French Foreign Legion. By outlining the Legion’s vicissitudes, victorious campaigns, epic marches, heroic and sometimes hopeless stands, dirtiest combats and dramatic defeats, but also by briefly placing the Legion back in the historical background of France, and by describing its development, organization, uniforms, equipments and weapons, the author hopes to dispel myths, and try to give a true and accurate picture of what the French Foreign Legion has been from 1831 until today. There are well-researched, detailed line drawings throughout.

Immigrant American soldiers played an important, often underrated role in World War I. Those who were non-citizens had no obligation to participate in the war, though many volunteered. Due to language barriers that prevented them from receiving proper training, they were often given the most dangerous and dirty jobs. The impetus for this book was the story of Matthew Guerra (the author's great-uncle). He immigrated to America from Italy around age 12. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1918 and shipped to France, where he joined the 58th Infantry Regiment of the 4th "Ivy" Division and participated in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives. Wounded in the Bois de Fays, the 22-year-old Guerra died in a field hospital.

This is the true story of Jack Hasey, an American captain in the Free French Foreign Legion during the Second World War, who was critically wounded during the Battle of Damascus in June 1941. His bravery earned him the Order of the Cross of Liberty, the Croix de guerre 39-45 with four citations, and the Insignia for the Military Wounded. He became a Knight of the Légion d’honneur and received France’s highest World War II honour of all when he was named Companion of the Ordre de la Libération.

Revised edition, with a new foreword and afterword from the author. 'From an air-conditioned Chicago office, Mr. Salazar took the express elevator straight to hell. Legion of the Lost is his story, the improbable, very funny tale of a sensitive, bookish child of Mexican immigrants who walked away from a promising career and, for romantic reasons, threw in his lot with a motley assortment of thugs, drunks, drug abusers and desperate refugees from the far corners of the earth. And those are the ones giving orders.' New York Times 'A story of horrifying institutionalised cruelty and incredible suffering, tempered with extraordinary camaraderie and mind-boggling fortitude. Legion of the Lost lays to rest romantic myths about the French Foreign Legion forever.' Google Books 'After about a year in corporate America, Jaime Salazar realized he wanted more in life. He wanted more than a big paycheck and a BMW. Salazar is a born adventurer and romantic and was not content with his job with Siemens in Chicago, where he was part of the technical sales teams. His ideals led him to the French Foreign Legion.' The Purdue Exponent 'A colorful, detailed, and brisk account of the blood, beatings, binge drinking, racism, and occasional satisfaction and pride from his time with the Legion. Salazar's prose marches along like a fit Legionnaire, largely un-ornamented yet getting the job done quickly and effectively, with all the dirt, swearing, and gunpowder one would expect from a military memoir. Legion of the Lost should prompt serious reflection about commitment, discipline, meaning, and purpose in life.' Good Reads No army is more surrounded by mystery, romance, and admiration than the French Foreign Legion. King Louis Philippe II created the Foreign Legion in 1831 as a way to rid France of penniless immigrants and others considered a liability to the French establishment. The Foreign Legion still exists today as an elite army of modern mercenaries from around the world, in the service of la France. Considered a haven for the dregs of society, joining the Foreign Legion was rumoured to be simple, but it wasn't. Getting out of the Foreign Legion, as Salazar soon realised, proved impossible. So what was an engineering professional doing in the "Legion of the Damned"? For those Dostoevsky calls the "insulted and the injured," men of character who seek adventure in the most obscure places, the Legion offers refuge. After surrendering his passport, and with it, any human rights, the Legion gave Salazar a new name and life. Even after finishing four months of what the Legion calls instruction, Salazar realized that his existence wasn't like that of Gary Cooper in Beau Geste. It was more a primitive life of beatings, marches, fanatical discipline, and sadistic NCOs. Idealists looking for a new beginning come to the Legion, but only the toughest, and cruelest are left to wear the Legion headdress, the kepi blanc. Once enlisted, there are three ways to leave the Legion: finishing one's five-year contract, disability, or leaving in a box. While serving a term in Legion prison, Salazar came up with a fourth solution - escape."

Still segregated in World War I, the U.S. Army was reluctant to use its 93d division of black soldiers in combat and instead assigned the division's three National Guard and one draftee regiments to the French Army. The battlefield successes of these African Americans under the French at the height of the German offensives in 1918 turned white expectations of failure upside down. Their bravery and heroism gained the respect of French and German alike and called into question the U.S. Army's policy of racially segregating its divisions. The full story of their accomplishments is told here for the first time through the eyes of the enlisted men and their white and black officers.

“A pleasure to read and nearly impossible to put down.” –Army Times “Embodies an experience that many have enjoyed in fantasy–few in reality.” –The Washington Post The French Foreign Legion–mysterious, romantic, deadly–is filled with men of dubious character, and hardly the place for a proper Englishman just nineteen years of age. Yet in 1960, Simon Murray traveled alone to Paris, Marseilles, and ultimately Algeria to fulfill the toughest contract of his life: a five-year stint in the Legion. Along the way, he kept a diary. Legionnaire is a compelling, firsthand account of Murray’s experience with this legendary band of soldiers. This gripping journal offers stark evidence that the Legion’s reputation for pushing men to their breaking points and beyond is well deserved. In the fierce, sun-baked North African desert, strong men cracked under brutal officers, merciless training methods, and barbarous punishments. Yet Murray survived, even thrived. For he shared one trait with these hard men from all nations and backgrounds: a determination never to surrender. “The drama, excitement, and color of a good guts-and-glory thriller.” –Dr. Henry Kissinger

The son of underpaid Mexican immigrants, Jaime earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue. But at twenty-three, he was disillusioned with the corporate fast track. So he became an outcast American in a hard-bitten group of recruits-men on the run from their pasts, men without hope: He joined the French Foreign Legion. From the Legion's notoriously brutal training to Salazar's fierce competitiveness, ultimate disillusionment and dramatic desertion, Legion of the Lost is a compelling, firsthand account of today's French Foreign Legion that will dispel myths while adding to the legend of the finest trained army of warriors the world has ever known.

On 24 August 1914, forty-four Americans joined the Foreign Legion and “with a cowboy swing” marched through Paris, wildly cheered by the crowd. They were Ivy League graduates, artists and dreamers and soldiers of fortune starting on equal terms as recruits in the French Army. They were the first Americans in the Great War, driven by a love for France and a thirst for adventure with no idea of the horrors awaiting them. This book is the amazing story of these American legionnaires told by three of the young volunteers: • David Wooster King – a 21-year-old dropout from Harvard, son of a rich businessman. King survived four years in the trenches ending as an officer in the US Army chasing German spies in Switzerland. He became a modern global adventurer and when the world went to war again David King was the first to volunteer for an even greater adventure in North Africa. • Alan Seeger – a 26-year-old poet and dreamer from a New York family of intellectuals. Seeger was killed during the Battle of the Somme on 4 July 1916. Six weeks earlier, he wrote the famous poem, ‘I Have a Rendezvous with Death’ which was to become his legacy and the favorite poem of President Kennedy. It has inspired a line of American presidents during the 20th century and is an indestructible poetic lifeline linking France and the United States of America. • Eugene James Bullard – the last of the three legionnaires and a 19-year-old entertainer and boxer from Columbus, Georgia. His father was born a slave, his mother was Creek Indian. Although wounded at Verdun and invalided out of the French Army, Bullard became the world’s first black aviator. After the war he settled in Paris and ran a bar in Montmartre before going to war for France again in 1940. The three men represent different pillars of the American soul, and their lives and dreams symbolize the story of how America became modern and remind us of the strong historic ties between France and America. Most of all, this book is a fantastic saga of brave men, great adventures and terrific sacrifices that bring hope and a new direction in a time of human division.