The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1918-08-09
CHAPTER III.
In the Foreign Legion.

InlS Time L was determined 10 en-
list So, when we landed at st. Ma
zaire. i drew my pay from the Vir-
ginian and, after spending a week
with my grandmother, went out and
asked the first gendarme I met where
the enlistment station was. had to
argue 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 hal no
trouble at all In Joining. The French,
of course, often speak of the Foreign
Legion as 'the convicts," because so
many legionaries are wanted by the
police of their respective countries,
but a criminal record never had been
q bar to service with the legion, and /
did not see why 1t should be now-if
they suspected me OF having one. !
had heard there were not few Ger
mans in the legion-later on became
acquainted with some-and believe
me, no AlSatian ever fought harder
against the Huns than these former
Deutschlanders did. 1t occurred to
me then that IL they thought was
a German, because had no passport,
i might have to prove had been in
trouble with the kaiser's crew before
they would accept me. / 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 was too young
90 have been G. p. 0. When they
challenged me on this point, ] said I
would prove it to them by taking an
examination.
They examined me very carefully,
In English, although / know enough
French to get by on subject like
gunnery. But foreign officers are very
proud Of their knowledge of English
and most of them can speak it--and /
think this one wanted to show of, as
you might say. Anyway, passed my
examination without any trouble,
was accepted for service In the For
eign Legion and received my commits
sion as gunner. dated Friday, January
4, 1916.
There is no use In my describing the
vorcigp Legion. 1t is one of the most
famous fighting organizations In the
world, and has made wonderful rec
ord during the war. When Joined La
Legion, 1t numbered about 10000 men.
Today 1t has less than 5000. They
say that since August, 1914, the legion
has been wiped out three times, and
that there are only q few men still In
service who belonged to the original
legion. believe IL to be true. In
January of this year the French gov
er1ment decided to let the legion die.
! was sorry to hear 1t. The legion
nnires were fine body of men, and
wonderful fighters. But the whole
civilized world Is now fighting the
Huns, and Americans do not have to
enlist with the French or the Limeys
any longer.
But one thing about the legion, that
4 ind many people do not know, Is that
the legionnaires are used for either
land or sen service. They are sent wher-
ever they can be used. do not know
whether this was the case before the
present war--I think not--but In my
kime, many of the men were put on
ships. Most people, however. have the
adea that they are only used In the In
fantry.
With my commission as gunner, !
received orders to 90 to Brest and Join
the dreadnaught Cassard. This as
signment tickled me. for my pal MUIR
ray was aboard. and ! had expected
trouble In trnnsferring to his ship In
case wns assigned elsewhere. We
hnd framed 1t up to stick together as
tong as we could. We did. too.
Murray was as glad as was when
I came aboard. and he told me he had
heard Brown, our other psi, had been
mnde sergeant in another regiment
Of the legion.
We were both surprised at some Of
the differences between the French
navy and ours. but after we got used
20 Il. we thought many Of their Gus
toms improvements over ours. But we
could not get used to It. at first. For
instance, on an American ship. when
you Are pounding your ear In q nice
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