Legion of the Lost: The True Experience of An American in the French Foreign Legion

all legion books pretty much the same. This is a more modern one dispelling the old myths. We can’t run away to the circus and now no more Legion. Think I’ll just stay in my room

From joining the Legion, learn French, hardships, brutality of the Caporals and survived it all. Then to negotiate the bullies within. This book is definitely worth a read.

I am interested in books about the French Foreign legion and I decided to buy this one thinking that I would read a book about humility, courage and toughness and so on...from a guy who has a similar level of studies. I was wrong.This book is basically about a nice (and naive) guy from a very religious background who discovered the pleasure of loose women, breaking his faith rules, his morality and going so in a downward spiral when he was a legionnaire.Those "details" with women, who can be read in any erotica harlequin novel, are like were written from a guy that was first time in his life considered by women.Since he was a wealthy guy, I asked myself, at the end: why instead he hasn't took a year off touring Europe/The world, so he could understand the joys of having a very well payied but very demanding job ?Sadly, I can gave two stars.

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.

Evan McGorman's account of life in the modern FFL suggested that 'corporal' punishment (no pun intended) in training had largely been eradicated, however, Salazar shows this is not so. Anyone thinking of joining would be well advised to read both books first! (They might even be persuaded to do something more productive with five years of their lives.) The Legion may provide a temporary 'home' for some misfits of one kind or another but there seems to be less call for its special brand of soldiering in this age of high tech warfare. The book is interesting and I concur with most of what reviewer "quinny" had to say (although, to me, parts of Salazar's story - particularly his amorous exploits - read more like fiction than fact).