On this day in 1831, the French Foreign Legion, Légion étrangère, also known simply as la Légion, was created by King Louis Philippe. The Legion is a corps of the French Army created to allow foreign nationals into French service. It formed part of the Armée d’Afrique, French Army units associated with France’s colonial project in North Africa, until the end of the Algerian War in 1962.
Legionnaires are today renowned as highly trained soldiers whose training focuses on traditional military skills and on the Legion’s strong esprit de corps, as its men come from different countries with different cultures. Consequently, training is often described as not only physically challenging, but also very stressful psychologically. Legionnaires may apply for French citizenship after three years’ service, or immediately after being wounded in the line of duty: This latter provision is known as “Français par le sang versé” (“French by spilled blood”).
Members come from 140 countries. In the past, legionnaires were forced to enlist under a pseudonym (“declared identity”). This policy was designed to allow recruits who wanted to restart their lives to enlist. The Legion held the belief that it was fairer to make all new recruits use declared identities. French citizens can enlist under a declared, fictitious, foreign citizenship (generally, a francophone one, often that of Belgium, Canada, or Switzerland). As of 20 September 2010, new recruits may enlist under their real identities or under declared identities. Recruits who do enlist with declared identities may, after one year’s service, regularize their situations under their true identities. After serving in the Foreign Legion for three years, a legionnaire may apply for French citizenship.
As the Foreign Legion is composed of soldiers of different nationalities and backgrounds, it is necessary to develop an intense esprit de corps, which is achieved through specific traditions, the loyalty of its legionnaires, the quality of their training, and the pride of being a soldier in an elite unit. n contrast to all other French Army units, the motto embroidered on the Foreign Legion’s regimental flags is not Honneur et Patrie (Honour and Fatherland) but Honneur et Fidélité (Honor and Fidelity). Legio Patria Nostra (in French La Légion est notre Patrie, in English The Legion is our Fatherland) is the Latin motto of the Foreign Legion.
Because of its traditional slower marching pace, the Foreign Legion is always the last unit marching in any parade
Repossessions are ruthless…
A proper Tramp Stamp…
Where to store your cat…
Bada Bing!
I got my shot for Shingles today. Just to be safe, l also got one for Vinyl Siding too!
Turns out you can just buy a birthday cake anytime and eat it yourself. Nobody checks.
Are the conservatives more afraid of the drag queens or the books they’re reading to the kids?
I have this cool phone app that shows me what I would look like as an old person. It’s called “camera.”
There is no bigger test of patience than using a remote to type your email address on a TV.
Does anyone know when W-2s for Walmart’s self checkout will be sent out?
I thought Ariana Grande was a font.
Every time I go out in public, the public is there. I can’t keep living like this!
I’m so poor I rub cologne from magazines on my shirt. When people say, “Oh, you smell good, what is that?” I say, “Page 14.”
I heard they’re building a mirror factory in my town. I could see myself working there.
So……where exactly are all these clinics that clinically approve everything?
I’m eating a second cookie because I ate the first one absentmindedly and didn’t appreciate it enough.
A man has passed out on the Ferris Wheel at the local fair. Paramedics on site say he is slowly coming around.
I will also be posting telepathically today. So if you think of something funny, that was me.
Guy in emergency room with several broken limbs. “But those pants DID make her butt look big!”
Why did they name them sea-monkeys when ‘shrimpanzees’ was sitting right there?!
Cop: Do you know why I stopped you? Me: Looking back at my trailer full of donkeys… “Because I’m hauling ass?”
Any pan can be a non-stick pan if you non-cook in it.
That look you get on your face when you say you’re bored and someone suggests some form of exercise.
The spaces between ladder rungs have increased because Americans are getting taller. Manufacturers claim it’s due to climb it change.
Some people are not as smart as others…
Here’s Alicia Keys… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J91ti_MpdHA
