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Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and the Ravels w
Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, which makes this stuff. You should know the
Speaker 1: Lightning Quick edition. Is this Lightning Quick? Yes? Because of
Speaker 1: the lightning. Oh yeah, we have a like tornadoes and
Speaker 1: stuff coming in, so it's like holding out of the
Speaker 1: Okay Corral as the storm rolls in. But well we'd
Speaker 1: also like to get out of the Okay Corral before
Speaker 1: the steward Let's get here, you know. That's the point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you were saying, there's a tornado flipping cars on like
Speaker 1: seventy five up north apparently. And I know my dog
Speaker 1: Buckley is at home just waiting to pee all over
Speaker 1: the place when the thunderstarts. So if I can be
Speaker 1: there and hold him, he's fine. The French Foreign Legion,
Speaker 1: chuck um. They are a fighting force, a military fighting
Speaker 1: force that one young man by the name of Jean
Speaker 1: Claude van Damme ran off and joined in the movies.
Speaker 1: I got you, It totally got me. I was like,
Speaker 1: I never knew. Can you imagine? No, he was? It
Speaker 1: was in the movies. He wasn't really a legionnaire. What
Speaker 1: movie was it? I think Legion was a movie called
Speaker 1: Legion Legion never heard of it. But yeah, he's a
Speaker 1: he's a legionaire. Actually you can tell, well, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know that there are that many like big fans,
Speaker 1: but I'll bet his big fans are like like big
Speaker 1: time John Claude van dam Um, like Steven Seagal's fans
Speaker 1: probably probably so just a hardcore you know, um. But
Speaker 1: you could tell that Jean Claude van dam was in
Speaker 1: this movie because he's wearing a hat with the little
Speaker 1: cape in the back. Yeah. Is that what it's called? Yeah,
Speaker 1: spelled k e P. I pronounced KP. And they still
Speaker 1: wear those, and uh, you know it's a it's a
Speaker 1: tradition that is still true today. The little flat cap
Speaker 1: very stiff and rigid, and uh, they don't always have
Speaker 1: the capes, you know, when they're out where they need them,
Speaker 1: they will. Well, the reason that they would have them
Speaker 1: is because for the better part of two centuries, the
Speaker 1: French Foreign Legion was stationed in Algeria. Yeah. Uh. And
Speaker 1: the reason they were station there is because that's where
Speaker 1: their headquarters were almost from the moment of inception of
Speaker 1: this um, this military group. Yeah. And the reason they
Speaker 1: were stationed there from inception was because they were a
Speaker 1: bunch of ne'er do well criminals in many cases, and
Speaker 1: so they're like, you know, you guys are great and
Speaker 1: you're super tough. Let's move you to Algeria to help
Speaker 1: our colonization efforts and get you out of France. Do
Speaker 1: you want to talk about the history first? Yeah, well today,
Speaker 1: let's talk about today just for one second. Over there
Speaker 1: are seven thousand, two d and eighty six Legionnaires as
Speaker 1: of December of last year, and to the date, to
Speaker 1: the date the date, thirty thousand have died in battle
Speaker 1: over the years. I saw that, which is not that bad.
Speaker 1: But it's a small group. You know that seven thousand
Speaker 1: isn't much, right, and there they are the fighting force
Speaker 1: in the world that have seen more continuous acts than
Speaker 1: any other. Yeah, they fight constantly, They've been fighting constantly. Well,
Speaker 1: and they're bad dudes like there, they even say in
Speaker 1: this article. And they're well known to be much tougher
Speaker 1: than the regular French army because they're not French. Well
Speaker 1: they're actually I don't know much that has to do
Speaker 1: with it, but they're known for being tough dudes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they're also a special forces unit. Basically, Um, no women.
Speaker 1: When we say dudes, we can say dudes. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: never been a Fridge Foreign legionnaire who is a woman. Uh,
Speaker 1: and um, they are. They've been in just about every conflict,
Speaker 1: um that the French have been in, yeah, since eighteen thirty. Um.
Speaker 1: And did you know that the French Foreign legion invaded
Speaker 1: Mexico in eighteen sixty one and stayed there until eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five when they're finally beaten back. Yeah. They tried
Speaker 1: to assassinate the president and installed in Austrian prince named
Speaker 1: Maximilian as the ruler of Mexico, has set it up
Speaker 1: as a French puppet state. I wonder if they had
Speaker 1: any influence on Culinarily speaking, I don't know. You don't
Speaker 1: much French stuff pop up in Mexico like you do
Speaker 1: in like Vietnam. During that Colognial period you know, or Indochina. Okay,
Speaker 1: So do you want to go to history? Should how
Speaker 1: these guys start? Well? In uh eighteen thirty Josh, they
Speaker 1: tell you little story about a guy named King Louis Philippe. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's known as a July Revolution. He replaced King Charles
Speaker 1: ten and X X and H after the Bourbon mon
Speaker 1: archy fell and this was Parisian radicals were involved in
Speaker 1: this overthrow. So even though he was made king in
Speaker 1: large part because of these radicals and because of radicalism,
Speaker 1: these radicals were some tough guys and a lot of
Speaker 1: them were you know, it kind of brought in this
Speaker 1: um criminal element in some cases. And you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to say they were bad guys, but maybe
Speaker 1: they were bad guys. Well, the King Louis Philippe thought
Speaker 1: that they were a threat to the monarchy because you know,
Speaker 1: he had gotten to the throne by these radicals, and
Speaker 1: it had attracted radicals from all over Europe and a
Speaker 1: lot of them were very soldier like, and he was
Speaker 1: like or former soldiers um, and he said, welcome to France.
Speaker 1: Let me figure out what to do with you. I
Speaker 1: can't legally make you a part of the French army.
Speaker 1: So how about I just make a foreign legion made
Speaker 1: up of foreign dissidence, foreign nationals, and UM send him elsewhere.
Speaker 1: And they for pretty happy with that plan. It was
Speaker 1: March of one he laid out his eight articles and
Speaker 1: pretty much that was what the foreign legion was from,
Speaker 1: who they were to be, where were there to train,
Speaker 1: what were there to where? And a lot of the
Speaker 1: traditions were established in that very first set of articles UM.
Speaker 1: And then included in that, Chuck are, was one that
Speaker 1: said that you had to UM to check for a
Speaker 1: birth certificate, a certificate of good life manners, and a
Speaker 1: certificate from a military authority saying that this person is
Speaker 1: a good soldier. And you had to have all that
Speaker 1: if you're going to accept the recruit that or um
Speaker 1: it was up to the commandants discretion. Yeah, that it
Speaker 1: reminded me of like how they'll be a paragraph and
Speaker 1: a legal contract that says all these things. At the
Speaker 1: very end it will say like or we could just
Speaker 1: change our mind about all that, right, So basically, yeah,
Speaker 1: we need all these papers and documents, and that was
Speaker 1: in our article seven or article six, and then the
Speaker 1: seventh article said, or just let them in if you,
Speaker 1: you know, have a good feeling about them exactly, and
Speaker 1: worry about the papers so much. And that led to
Speaker 1: this thing called um and and non nimt nonmat, which
Speaker 1: is anonymity in French. Um and it says that you
Speaker 1: can join the French Foreign Legion under an assumed name,
Speaker 1: because we're going to give you an assumed name one
Speaker 1: way or another for the first year of your service
Speaker 1: in the French Foreign Legion. You need to basically take
Speaker 1: on an assumed name. You're leaving your old identity behind.
Speaker 1: And that's a really strange, unusual aspect of the frenchign
Speaker 1: legion um that still exists today. Yeah. In fact, it
Speaker 1: was mandatory until just a few years ago. Until two
Speaker 1: thousand ten, you had to sign up under a different name,
Speaker 1: and then at the end of that year you go
Speaker 1: through a process called military regularization of the situation, which
Speaker 1: basically meant you could get your old papers back from
Speaker 1: your home country and go back to your old name.
Speaker 1: And you can still do all that. It's just not
Speaker 1: mandatory any longer. No UM. But a lot of guys
Speaker 1: it's like the fresh start, you know, that's what they're
Speaker 1: looking for. A lot of men who joined the army
Speaker 1: and that's one of the every country. That's one of
Speaker 1: the things that the French Foreign Legion touts when you
Speaker 1: when you join it, is that we're a place you
Speaker 1: can have a second chance. Yeah, forget your past, even
Speaker 1: forget your name, minor criminal records. I mean back in
Speaker 1: the day they would accept major criminals. Uh. Now they're
Speaker 1: a little more selective and they'll overlook like a minor
Speaker 1: criminal record, but nothing like they want to accept murderers
Speaker 1: and things like that. And for a very long time, Um,
Speaker 1: they would accept nothing, no one but foreign nationals. You
Speaker 1: couldn't be French and join the French Foreign Legion. You
Speaker 1: can join the army, but not the foreign Legion. Um.
Speaker 1: They recently changed that, so you can be French um
Speaker 1: and join it, right, Yeah. And you can gain your
Speaker 1: French citizenship as a foreign national by serving what three years?
Speaker 1: Three years in good standing. And I think you have
Speaker 1: to go back to your original name and stuff. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: you if you're going to get citizenship, you can't do
Speaker 1: it under your declared name. Um. And you're talking about that, um,
Speaker 1: the what was it called where you go through that
Speaker 1: that process of the military regularization of the situation it's
Speaker 1: such a weird name for name change really is UM.
Speaker 1: But it's not just the name change. It's basically like
Speaker 1: that represents the end of your first year, and it
Speaker 1: represents the end of the French Foreign Legion owning you
Speaker 1: during this time. UM. During your first year, you cannot
Speaker 1: have a civilian bank account, you can't get married, you
Speaker 1: can't wear civilian clothes even off duty. You can't buy
Speaker 1: a car, you can't um travel abroad on leave anywhere
Speaker 1: but France. You have to wear your uniform all the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: some in some form or fashion you have to wear
Speaker 1: a uniform. So yeah, it's UM. They own you for
Speaker 1: the first year. It's definitely harder than the French Army.
Speaker 1: Like you said, yeah, and whatever status. If you're married
Speaker 1: and you join the French Foreign Legion, you have to
Speaker 1: enlist as a single man, right, So I don't know
Speaker 1: if I guess you can remain married technically, but the
Speaker 1: papers say that you're a single man. I would imagine
Speaker 1: if you run off to the French Foreign Legion, the
Speaker 1: marriage might be on shaky ground as it is, or
Speaker 1: you're not married. Yeah, this good point that probably out
Speaker 1: of like already married men doesn't seem like a very
Speaker 1: family supportive place. It's kind of like, you know, you
Speaker 1: are getting away from a situation or something like that. Honey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to deny your existence and change my name. Um,
Speaker 1: but it's really worth it because I want to be
Speaker 1: a legionnaire and where and where the kp right and
Speaker 1: gain the respect of the French. You think I'm just kidding. Well,
Speaker 1: you know what's funny is they are. I read an article.
Speaker 1: There's an article in the December two thou twelve Vanity
Speaker 1: Fair called the Expendables. That's pretty interesting. It's about the
Speaker 1: French Foreign Legion what they're doing now. Some of that
Speaker 1: you remember in our gold Um episode we talked about
Speaker 1: illicit gold mining in Guiana. Apparently one of the things
Speaker 1: that Foreign Legion is doing now is they're fighting those
Speaker 1: gold miners now, shutting that down. That's one of the
Speaker 1: things they're doing because Afghanistan's winding down for the French,
Speaker 1: so they're kind of looking for new stuff to do,
Speaker 1: and that's one of the things up. Uh. Your first
Speaker 1: contract if you join up as a legionnaire is a
Speaker 1: minimum of five years and pay for a corporal starting
Speaker 1: out is one thousand forty three I guess euros per
Speaker 1: month plus of course you know all room and board,
Speaker 1: but that's your take home pay or not. I don't
Speaker 1: know about takeome but that's your salary. And you get
Speaker 1: forty five days leave and then you know there is
Speaker 1: a path to prosperity to some degree in success US,
Speaker 1: just like any other army, you can work your way
Speaker 1: up through the officer ranks. And after that first five years,
Speaker 1: successive contracts are six months to five years. Uh. And
Speaker 1: I don't I'm not sure how they determine that, whether
Speaker 1: it's up to you, like if you're like, I just
Speaker 1: want to go six months at a time here, guys,
Speaker 1: or I'm not sure. I couldn't actually find any information
Speaker 1: on that. If they're like, no, you you must sign
Speaker 1: for three years, six months whatever. Yeah, they're like you'll
Speaker 1: probably be dead by then anyway, so and we'll keep
Speaker 1: all of your euros um So in that article, one
Speaker 1: of the things I was that I came across was
Speaker 1: that the the um the legionnaire's view themselves and apparently
Speaker 1: are viewed by the French as That's why the article
Speaker 1: is called the Expendables as basically there to fight and
Speaker 1: kill and die, and that there's a lot of honor
Speaker 1: in dying, even if it's unnecessarily. But they're just they
Speaker 1: kind of are nihilistic. I get the impression. And I
Speaker 1: think they even used that word their nihilists, well not
Speaker 1: say nhilists. Yeah. I did read part of the article though,
Speaker 1: and they said that normal people don't join the French
Speaker 1: Foreign Legion, right, they said they're all just a little
Speaker 1: little off, which, um, you know, good about their tough dudes.
Speaker 1: And the Spans. The Spanish tried the same thing in
Speaker 1: they tried to form the Spanish Foreign Legion, um, and
Speaker 1: it didn't take so now it's just called the Spanish Legion.
Speaker 1: It's made up of Spaniards. Yeah. And some folks say
Speaker 1: America could try something like a foreign Legion with h
Speaker 1: the influx of non Americans in this country to maybe
Speaker 1: serve under our regular armies. And uh, I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's ever been pitched. Patril citizenship should be in
Speaker 1: the Dream Act. Yeah why not, dude, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm sure people would be like, this is why not? Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can email us later. Yeah, I didn't consider it. It
Speaker 1: It just came to my head. Um, have you got
Speaker 1: anything else, No, I want to keep. I'll get you
Speaker 1: one for your birthday. Do you remember when those were
Speaker 1: like hip in the eighties with the breakdancing? Uh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: those are awesome. It's so funny what different cultures latch
Speaker 1: onto from different eras. Yes, you know, yeah, somebody said
Speaker 1: that will look very cool when I'm doing a headspin.
Speaker 1: And the KPE was adopted a break in Ohio, like
Speaker 1: the painters cap And when I was just growing up,
Speaker 1: the Painter's cap and the bicycle caps were very big
Speaker 1: in the eighties. Oh yeah, the bike cap with the billful.
Speaker 1: I had a couple of, like Italian ones. I just
Speaker 1: thought it was so cool. What was the name of
Speaker 1: that one brand that everybody had the bike had, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about, trek No, it was like
Speaker 1: a French name, I believe. I don't know. Uh, I
Speaker 1: think I had one though. I thought, like it's similar
Speaker 1: to the word champion, Samano or something. But it wasn't
Speaker 1: that Japanese. And I know what you mean, it's gonna
Speaker 1: come to me. I wonder if it is Japanese. I'll
Speaker 1: bet it's Italian or something. And I'm saying it's Japanese. Shimano. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love it when we do these things that where
Speaker 1: we can't think of something because we always get emails
Speaker 1: where people like, oh, screaming in my home the name,
Speaker 1: We're sorry for all of them. Yeah, that sounds close.
Speaker 1: It's not it's that that we're not going to get emails,
Speaker 1: but those of you screaming right now, settled down. Grab
Speaker 1: You only get Ahold of Yourselves podcast. Uh. If you
Speaker 1: want to learn more about the foreign legion, you can
Speaker 1: type that word or those words into the search bar
Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot com and that will bring up this
Speaker 1: fine article. There you go. And I said search bars,
Speaker 1: it was time for listener mail. I guess before we
Speaker 1: get into that chuck, you want a message from our sponsor.
Speaker 1: And now it's time for listener mail. Uh. This is
Speaker 1: from Donato and it's about autopsies. Dudes, just finished listening
Speaker 1: to the autopsies work. I wanted to mention a couple
Speaker 1: of things. I'm currently in law enforcement and have attended
Speaker 1: a few of them. My first one was really fascinating.
Speaker 1: The emmy tried to get me to vomit by handing
Speaker 1: me a brain the past to his assistant, but it
Speaker 1: actually really turned out to be extre really exciting for me,
Speaker 1: So screw you, Emmy, I'm not vomiting. Look at me,
Speaker 1: I'm juggling in s brand Um. I wanted to point
Speaker 1: out you did not mention the extraction of vitreous fluid
Speaker 1: from the eyeballs using a needle. That part was a
Speaker 1: little freaky to me, I have to admit, and after
Speaker 1: a couple of times asked why it was done, which
Speaker 1: leads me to toxico toxicological toxicological examination. Fluids and samples
Speaker 1: from some organs are sent for examination in these cases. Uh,
Speaker 1: and in my experience, emmys will not provide a final
Speaker 1: autopsy before toxicology results come back. And lastly, the difference
Speaker 1: between cause and manner of death c O D and
Speaker 1: m O D Uh. They are used interchangeably often, but
Speaker 1: c O D is the physiological mechanism responsible for death,
Speaker 1: where m O D is the explanation how the c
Speaker 1: O D can would be. For example, is physia is
Speaker 1: the c O D and murder is the m O D.
Speaker 1: If a person is smoldered with their pillow, so c
Speaker 1: you can be considered purely medical, while the m O
Speaker 1: D is a combination of medical and investigative and evil
Speaker 1: and so I hope it did not double tap something
Speaker 1: you guys covered. Well, that's an old time your reference.
Speaker 1: Nice call out to uh green Barray's uh Delta Delta.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Denato, Thanks Denata. Appreciate that he's written in before. Awesome,
Speaker 1: Thanks for writing in again. Has he made listener mail before? Uh? No,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what he went wrote in before? After? Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: I just winked it. Um. If you want to write in,
Speaker 1: you can write in as many times as possible. See
Speaker 1: if you can get on listener mail twice, I don't
Speaker 1: think anyone ever has, right, well, Sarah the amazing eleven
Speaker 1: twelve now thirteen fourteen, probably fifteen year old. Yeah that's right,
Speaker 1: Thank you for correcting me. And Sarah, come on, we
Speaker 1: haven't had a letter in a while. Yeah, it's been
Speaker 1: a long time. We don't know how drama classes going
Speaker 1: and all that. Get on it all right. Uh. If
Speaker 1: you want to get in touch with us, you can
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