The Making of a Legionnaire : My Life in the French Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment

Rating:
Summary: Good But Not a Classic
Review: In the realm of military history literature, there is the special genre of French Foreign Legion memoirs. These autobiographies range from officer perspectives like Prince Aage of Denmark's, "My Life in the Foreign Legion" to the stories of hardscrabble Eastern Europeans like Aparvay's "A Legionnaire's Journey" and Ehle's, "The Survivor".

Within this genre, there is an even more interesting subset of English Legionnaire memoirs. On one end of the continuum, there is Simon Murray's "Legionnaire". His story is of the upper class Englishman who joins the Legion to impress a woman and ends up fighting guerillas in the mountains of Algeria. Murray's account is the classic Foreign Legion tale of adventure and suffering. On the other end of the continuum is Christian Jennings' "A Mouthful of Rocks". Whereas, Simon Murray is brave and heroic, Jennings is a very charming petty thief, liar and deserter. His peace time Legion is filled with losers and malcontents. Heroics is replaced with humor.

Bill Parris', "The Making of a Legionnaire, falls somewhere in the middle of continuum. He is an ex-military man who joins the Legion because of family problems. All of the classic scenes of the Foreign Legion Memoir are present. There is the mandatory enlistment scene where the recruit knocks on the Garrison door and enters into the foreboding world of the Legion. He then proceeds onto the brutal basic training with its customary physical harshness and tough NCO's. As to be expected, Parris includes the mandatory Camerone Day and Christmas Celebrations. Bill Parris is the classic motivated professional soldier who after basic training moves onto the Second Parachute Regiment, the elite regiment in an elite force.

It is at this point, his editors really start to fail Bill Parris. As a member of the Parachute Regiment he goes onto to fight in Rwanda and in Chad. Unfortunately, these two interesting stories only get superficial treatment. It is as thought the memoir runs out of steam when it starts to get really interesting.

The "Golden Years" of the Legion fighting in North Africa and Indochina are over. Intervening in small Central African conflicts is what the Legion now does for a living. Illuminating this experience could have made this memoir very interesting. As it is, "The Making of a Legonnaire" is a good book. Parris is a good story teller and is honest with himself and his audience. This is a good first time book for a person interested in the contemporary Legion. Unforuntately, afficionados of the Legion Memoir, will be a bit dissapointed.