Carrizozo outlook. [volume] (Carrizozo, N.M.) 1910-1945, 1918-12-06
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This timo ! was determined TO en-
list. SO, when we landed nj 81. Ma
Eaire. / drew my pay from the vir.
ginlan and. after Speeding n week
Win my Grandmother, l went out and
hsked the FIRST gendarme / met where
the enlistment station was. l had TO
hrgue with him some time before he
would even direct me TO II. or course
had no passport and this made him
suspicious Of me.
The officer In charge OF the station
was no warmer In his welcome than
the gendarme, and this surprised me,
because Murray and Brown had no
trouble ut all In Joining. The French,
or course. often speak OF the Foreign
Legion as "the convlcts," because 40
many legionaries are wanted by the
police OF their respective countries.
b u n criminal record never had been
a a to service with the legion, and l
did not see why II should be now-lf
they suspected me OF having one. l
had heard there were not a few Ger
mans In the legion--later on l became
acquainted with some-and believe
me. no Alsatian ever fought harder
against the Huns thnn these former
Deutschlanders did. II occurred TO
me then that II they thought l WINS
a German, because I had no passport.
l might have to prove ! had been In
trouble with the kaiser's crew before
they would accept me. I do not know
what the real trouble was, but / solved
the problem by showing them my dis
charge papers from the American
navy. Even then, they were suspicious
because they thought l was too young
"a have been a O. p. o. When they
challenged me on this point, I said /
would prove II to them by taking an
examination.
They examined me very carefully.
In English. although / know enough
French to get by on a subject like
gunnery. But foreign officers are very
proud OF their knowledge of English
and most OF them car speak .t-and
think this n wanted to show OF. as
you might say. Anyway, / passed nv
examination without any trouble,
was accepted for service In the For.
eign Legion and received my commits.
sion as gunner, dated Friday. January
1915.
There is no use In my describing the
Foreign Legion. II ia one OF the most
fighting organizations In the
world and has made a wonderful rec
ord during the When I Joined La
II numbered about 10000 men.
Today II has less than 5000. They
iay That since August, 1914, the legion
ias been wiped out three times. and
nat there are only n few men still in
who belonged to the original
egion. / believe II to be true. In
January of this year the French GOV.
'rnment decided to let the legion die.
was sorry &c hear II. The legion
laires were a fine body OF men. and
wonderful fighters. But the whole
world is now fighting the
iuns, and Americans do not have 10
Mist with the French or the Limeys
ny longer. {
But n thing about the legion. that
md many people do not know, Is thai
legionnaires are used for either ,
Ind or sea service. They are sent wher. ,
they can be used. / do not know ,
this was the case before the ,
resent war-I think not-but I'm NV .
Ime, many Of the men we're put ON !.
hips, Most people, however. hive the '
that they are only used In the In =.
!
With my commission as gunner !.
sceived orders TO 20 TO Brest md join
d~readnaught Cassnrd. This aa- 4,
gnment tickied me, for my pal Muir. !,
" was aboard, and l had expected J,
ouhle In transferring 20 his shin IN y
Use I wis assigned elsewhere. Wa !.
framed II up TO stick together Al >
ng as we could. We did, too. a
Murray was as glad as / was when =
aboard, and he told me he had =
eard Brown, our other pal, had been 4,
AIDE a sergeant Ia another regiment 1,
the legion. In
We were both surprised at some OF a,
70 differences between the French OF
IVY and ours, but after we got used m
Il, we thought many OF their Gus il
improvements over ours. But we b,
Md not get used to II. at first FOR c,