Inside the French Foreign Legion: Adventures with the World´s Most Famous Fighting Force

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Among the world’s elite fighting units, the French Foreign Legion stands out as one of the most unique and mysterious. Open to volunteers from around the globe, the Legion has a storied military history spanning Europe, Africa, Latin America, Vietnam, Algeria, and Afghanistan. It features a notoriously challenging selection process, accepting only about 2 percent of applicants, and traditionally requires soldiers to enlist under assumed names. Legionnaires swear allegiance to the Legion itself rather than to France, which has been romanticized in various forms of media as a place for men to prove their mettle or start anew. In this engaging book, N. J. Valldejuli, an English-born American who spent two years in the Legion, provides an insider's view of what it means to be a legionnaire. He reveals who these soldiers are, what they do, where they serve, and why they are willing to die for a country that is often foreign to them. Through personal experiences and interviews with former legionnaires, Valldejuli shares stories from Algeria in the 1960s to recent operations in Afghanistan, highlighting the intense camaraderie, fierce loyalty, and extreme demands placed on legionnaires, as well as the sacrifices made by their families.