Legion of the Lost: The true experience of an American in the French Foreign Legion Paperback – February 24, 2021

Somewhere amidst the mid-1990s a Soldier magazine (S.O.F I think it was) found its way into my living room. That issue had published a lengthy informative article on the French Foreign Legion that I found utterly fascinating. As Full Metal Jacket and Heartbreak Ridge had done to me previously, my head began to swim with romantic ideas of ‘extreme soldiering’ and ‘sniping bad guys’.About 10 years later extreme survivor dude Bear Grylls did a 4-part series on FFL boot camp. He and a bunch of other idiots decided it would be good TV to be filmed trying to survive the initial 4 week FFL boot camp. He was right, it made for great TV. And once again visions of white caps danced in my head.So here I am another 10 years later and I have stumbled on to Jaime’s book. And once again I aimed to get my decade Legion fix. So that’s what I did. So here is what you need to know before purchase… You need to know what the book is and what it is not. There is a surplus of negative comments about this book as you have most likely seen. I humbly believe that those who did not care for the book did not because they were expecting something else. The book is not a military-training-life-in-the-Legion tell all per se; rather it is a personal recount of an intelligent young man searching for purpose and meaning in the French Foreign Legion. It is a story of personal discovery that unfolds as a journey of disenchantment and frustration. I found this to be relatable and enlightening.There has been a lot of blow back on the subject of Jaime's unscheduled exodus from the Legion. Whether you think this is right or wrong is really not the point. If you take an overview off all Jaime's decisions and actions during this time and look at it for what it is, you see that he is really telling the reader that during this time he was lost and searching. Being lost often leads to less than wonderful decisions as well as an attempt to fill the void with whatever takes meaning at the time. His narrative is filled with dozens of examples of this very thing. What is important is that he tells the whole story. He needs to let the reader to know it without a sugar coating.Now that being said, did the book have the elements that drove me to it in the first place? It did. In Jaime’s journey there was a solid account of the recruitment process, the brutish inhumane discipline, the uber-intense training; as well as a full clown-college-troupe-of-characters straight out of central casting. Pile on to that Ozzy-level partying coupled with overly debaucherous tales of bedroom lore and you have ‘Legion of the Lost’.At the end of the day I enjoyed taking a ride on Jaime’s journey; and I think as long as you know what you are in store for, you will to. Bon appetite.

There is a genre of literature consisting of memoirs of men who have served in the French Foreign Legion. There are two autobiographies that stand out as the very best examples of the genre. On one end of the spectrum is Simon Murray's "Legionnaire", a heroic story of privileged Brit who ends up fighting in Algeria. At the other end of the spectrum is Christian Jennings' "Mouthful fo Rocks", a self loathing but very funny Brit who ends up by deserting from the Legion. Unfortunately for Jaime Salazar, he falls into the camp of the deserters.Salazar begins his journey as a 25 year old mechanical engineer straight out of Perdue University. While driving around in his new 5 series BMW, he realizes the corporate rat race is not for him. He quits his job and heads to Europe for a little backpacking adventure. While in France, he gets the strange notion of becoming a gentleman/private in the French Foreign Legion. Thus, the American college boy and former Yuppie begins his year long adventure in the Legion.All the classic Legion scenes and characters are found in this memoir. There is strenous basic training at the Farm, brutal and stupid NCO's, back breaking physical training and plenty of drinking stories. Everything you would expect to be covered in a Legion tale is spelled out in vivid detail.Like many a recruit, Salazar entered the Legion hoping for a Simon Murray experience and instead found a brutal peacetime Legion that specialized in devouring its own recruits. In the course of a year, Salazar goes from being a would be Simon Murray hero to a Christian Jennings' deserter. Salazar is refreshingly honest about his many failures and small triumphs inside the Legion. He is at his best in describing the small details of how he tried to survive his many grueling experiences. Unfortuantely, he lacks the funny self loathing and insights that Christian Jennings' brought to his story of deserting the Legion. In a sense, he leaves the Legion as naive as when he entered.For afficionados of the Legion memoir genre, this volume stands out because he is one of the few Americans who have recently written about his experience. I think this may be the only American memoir that we will see for quite sometime. In this post 9/11 world, any young American itching for adventure and a little trigger time, can find plenty of it in his own nation's army.Although not a classic, Jaime Salazar does a credible job of telling his story of Legion life in the late 1990's. I would recommend it to all afficionados of the genre and for naive young men who like to day dream of one day joining the Legion of the Damned.

The author demonstrated good judgement in numerous bullying incidents by simply walking away or tolerating the abuse. I strongly identified with his experience, as I myself was a Marine for six years in a rifle company. Unlike the author, I have never regretted not staying in, although I did complete my six year enlistment. I do think about it a lot though. And dream that I am back in my unit. To his credit, he went back to France after his desertion and tried to get back into the Legion, and that in itself atones for his breach of contract. I kept drawing parallels between the stupidity and harsh discipline of the Legion and the USMC and strongly identified with the author.