As requested...I'm Smiling Canadian AMA (almost)
- Thread starter Smiling Canadian
- Start date
~JULY 4~Smiling Canadian
Veteran X
6 fucking times...this is what I have ptsd from. It takes about 2 weeks to get your shit ready for Bastille Day. Our uniform has 13 evenly spaced fan shaped pleats on the back of the shirt that require Godlike skills to achieve. And by God these fucking creases have to be fucking perfect or you will marché canard for the rest of your contract. I have seen men cry after fucking with these for 2 days trying to get it right.
And drill...and drill some more...and then when you think you can't drill anymore you drill some more because if anyone makes a misstep you embarrass the Regiment and Lord help the guy that embarrasses the Regiment.
On the plus side you were usually give 5 days liberty if you participated in the parade and the French girls would literally be throwing their panties at the Legionnaires so you are sure to get laid like 10 time at least.
Smiling Canadian
Veteran X
I don't want to type out a TL;DR on this this one but please bear with me if I ramble...
When I left I told no one I was leaving. I just left. When I returned 27 years later, I contacted my Mother and my 2 sisters. That was it. I don't know why I contacted them as I had never written them. I did stay in touch with 2 people with the understanding that they were never to discuss my location with anyone. So long story short I made new friends when I got back.
I agree with you on the not pussy footing around. A fellow I know lost both legs in Afghanistan and he fucking hates being treated like a victim. He's just a guy with no legs...BFD.
Smiling Canadian
Veteran X
I think the fact that I have to be the best at whatever I do made the transition easier for me once I had the maturity to understand what was expected of me as a human being. I know that sounds strange. I would have probably ended up a broken person if I had tried to just be a civilian again after Vietnam. I was too young and stupid to make good life choices. I could lead people in battle, think on my feet in combat, see the events playing out before me and be able to formulate a plan in seconds on the battlefield but I couldn't balance my cheque book if you know what I mean.
I had a much better handle on life after I left the Legion. Mature, confident, pretty arrogant but also driven to succeed at being a civilian. I don't know why it its so difficult for others. I think being a high speed guy for the last 10 years of my career gave me a mindset that I am the best and I can not be defeated at anything.
Sounds stupid but if you don't adapt to the world around you, you will fail.
Smiling Canadian
Veteran X
I can live any place in the world I want and I still choose Canada. To me, even with all her faults, she is still the best place I have seen to live and raise a family and live your life the way you want to...but I think my country is now heading down a path that will eventually destroy the philosophy that built this country.
Almost everyone thinks their country is best country though...
Flash
Veteran XX
Over 100?
bowl of blood
Contributor
travel iron lmao
batteries man that is exactly the shit that pisses me off. it was probably worse back then since the tech has improved but to this day we're shipping off shit with a 6 hour battery life and three backups so it can meet a 24-hour uptime requirement. and there's always excuses about why we have to use this manufacturer and this os and these sw plugins and we might have to increase the load cap to 50 and i'm like jesus this is the entire point guys. it needs to be running to be useful.
sorry i have this death battle a few times a year with any pm who shows weakness, appreciate the time you took to reply
Is there an official "Send to HoF" request button on this forum?
That's amazing, I grew up in Paris and we never missed the parade. I was always impressed by the légionnaires with their axes and leather apron. You guys where the most bass ass.
Chances are that I applauded you. Ever planing on coming back to Europe?
MaxxCarnage
Veteran XX
I have read about the FFL and even considered joining at a time. Was Military Regularization of Service implimented in your time, or was that process you mentioned at the end to segue how Legionaires reacclimated to their old life?
What was the most reviled background of any of your Legion mates, did you have any guys running from bad shit?
Was Legion training still super brutal in your day? I have heard stories about death in training, something like 1 in 10 in the earlier days, does that sound remotely correct?
Finalment, le francias vous prizez est tres bien. :thumbup:
You're a badass, thanks for all you've done to make the world better.
What was the most reviled background of any of your Legion mates, did you have any guys running from bad shit?
Was Legion training still super brutal in your day? I have heard stories about death in training, something like 1 in 10 in the earlier days, does that sound remotely correct?
Finalment, le francias vous prizez est tres bien. :thumbup:
You're a badass, thanks for all you've done to make the world better.
Amen brother
I wish it was +15 instead of -15 but I'll have a hard time living anywhere other than here
Planning on retiring in canmore/some sleepy small mountain town myself in a decade or two
Smiling Canadian
Veteran X
You're talking about the Pioneers. They march at the head of all Legion parade formations. All Pioneers have to have a beard at all times. The Legion also marches at the back of all Military parades.
I use to go back every couple of years because of women and fucking shopping and looking at old stuff. No plans to return now.
I'm curious as to why you joined the USMC as a Canadian. The Canadians did have troops in Vietnam, why not join one of those branches and serve that way?
Which unit were you in when you were in Hue? Which parts of the fighting were you involved in? I recently read a book on the battle of Hue, if you were in that shitstorm, kudos for surviving that.
For the rest of the unenlightened, the book is called "Hue 1968" by Mark Bowden, same author that did Black Hawk Down. Amazing account of the battle at Hue during Tet.
Which unit were you in when you were in Hue? Which parts of the fighting were you involved in? I recently read a book on the battle of Hue, if you were in that shitstorm, kudos for surviving that.
For the rest of the unenlightened, the book is called "Hue 1968" by Mark Bowden, same author that did Black Hawk Down. Amazing account of the battle at Hue during Tet.
Smiling Canadian
Veteran X
Military regularization was just being implemented when I left so I can't really speak to that. In my time we were still allowed to obtain French citizenship under your l'anonymat. I know this is not the case now.
It is an unwritten rule that you don't ask a fellow Legionnaire about his background. Everyone is equal. I have heard stories about bank robbers and the such joining to gain a new identity but that can't happen now. Recruit lists and for that matter all member lists are regularly checked against Interpol wanted lists and the Gestapo now crawls so far up your ass they will find out everything you are hiding from.
In the olden days you were more likely to die in training or being punished than you were in combat. In my time we lost between 100 and 150 people a year to training accidents. Again training was not much different in the beginning than it was in the Corps. There is a much higher emphasis on running though and rope climbing. Once you are in a Regiment though things ramp up pretty hard. I was at the top of my recruit class physically but felt like I was always running drag for my first 3 months in a regiment.
Smiling Canadian
Veteran X
I don't think Canada had troops in Vietnam until like 73 or 74...after the peace accord there were some peacekeepers. I joined in late '67 so army or marines were my only options.
I was officially 26th Marine Regiment but because I couldn't get back to Khe Sanh after the siege started I was plugged into the 1st of the 1st. I was part of the fighting at the MACV compound and then moved into the city and we just went were bad guys were which was pretty much every building. I got wounded a second time at the hospital and then I was out of that fight until it was over.
edit: There were about 25 to 30 thousand Canadians that joined all branches of the US military during the war. and roughly 15,000 were combat soldiers. Those that joined after about mid 1969 were usually given non combat assignments.
Last edited:
Thanks, having read about the fighting in the places you mentioned I'm doubly impressed.
While I had known about Tet, the narrative was always that it was a massive military defeat for the North Vietnamese, but there wasn't much talk about the actual battles in places like Hue. General Westmoreland at that time kept insisting that the real fight was going to be at Khe Sanh, that everything else was a diversion. What a moron. Thank God he got reassigned. The fighting in and around Hue went on for weeks and accounted for most of the US military's casualties. While the rest of the offensive died out rather quickly, Hue (not Tet) proved to be the battle that changed public opinion of our involvement in Vietnam.
In the book the description of the house to house fighting was especially brutal.
Again, Kudos to you for serving, even volunteering, at that time in US history.
Smiling Canadian
Veteran X
LOL...a bunch of us were reading a paper someone got sent from home about how we were just doing mop ups and how we were kicking the enemy's ass all over the place. We all looked at each other almost simultaneously and started laughing.
"Every story we publish is a bullet fired into the black heart of Communism" ~ The Short Timers, probably
Last edited: