A
ormer commanding officer of the 2nd REP and former commander of the Foreign Legion, Army General (2s) * Bruno Dary is the Chairman of the Committee flame under the Arc de Triomphe.
" Here, it's like that !
», This motto has long marked the entry of the 4th Foreign Regiment - the 4th RE - of Castelnaudary.
Thus, any legionary or any visitor who enters the district receives this message: he enters a particular world, that of the Foreign Legion, whose past, not to say the legend, is no longer to be written;
within a community, which daily proves its brotherhood of arms and its brotherhood of souls;
and in operational training, which is regularly engaged in the most uncertain, if not the hardest, battles, as well as in missions on the national territory.
And it is within the confines of this regiment, the school of the Foreign Legion, that any man who chooses to enlist, will spend his first four months of service and training.
Thus, for each recruit, in particular, for foreigners, enlisting means coming to serve France by arms, and therefore being ready to risk one's own life to defend a country which is not one's homeland.
For the regiment and especially for its management, the challenge is both important and daily;
it is, in four months, to train a soldier, who will join a combat unit, which implies that he will have to master the elementary rudiments of any fighter to be ready to be engaged in an operation upon his arrival .
Finally, last parameter and not the least, within the section, which will be the elementary entity of this initial training, the 40 or so legionaries do not speak French for three quarters and come from 10, 15 or 20 different countries, among the 140 nationalities that make up the Legion today.
To achieve this performance, a golden rule serves as a common thread throughout this training:
"instruction in French, instruction in French, instruction in French"
.
The legionaries are made up in pairs or trinomials, a French speaker with one or two foreigners, knowing that the final mark awarded to each will be that of the foreigner.
General Bruno Dary
The instruction of French consists, according to a simple and empirical method which has proved its worth for a long time, the “Képi blanc” method, in making learn some 500 words which will allow the legionnaire to be autonomous.
In this regard, it is curious to listen to the sociologists who assert that in order to integrate into a country, you have to master around 500 words.
French lessons are daily and based on repetition;
A few years ago, a report on training at the Legion made many viewers smile, because the officer made the legionnaire repeat:
"this is a can of beer"
... which reveals the pragmatism of the courses.
And then, to motivate all the legionaries, including those who are francophones, the legionaries are made up in pairs or trinomials, a francophone with one or two foreigners, knowing that the final mark awarded to each will be that of the foreigner!
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Instruction in French, because French will be the only language, written and spoken, throughout the training, in everyday life and, subsequently, in a combat unit.
In operations, it can be a matter of life and death, because in combat, a misunderstood or poorly given order can be a source of dramatic misunderstanding.
The habit is taken - which sometimes makes an outside observer smile - of systematically having the orders given by the person who receives them repeated;
it is in fact a matter of forcing the subordinate to speak French and making sure that he has understood correctly.
In addition, mastery of the French language is an intrinsic condition for advancing in rank: because if the initial training, such as the internships to access the first ranks, from corporal to sergeant, are carried out within the Legion, the subsequent internships for to become a senior non-commissioned officer, or even an officer, take place in Army schools, which implies mastery of our language.
It is customary to have the orders given by the person who receives them systematically repeated;
it is about forcing the subordinate to speak French and making sure he understands correctly.
General Bruno Dary
Finally, instruction in French, that is to say in French culture.
For men called to live together, it is essential to make them adopt our lifestyles, our behavior, our traditions and our moral rules.
The first act is to learn and understand the Legionnaire's Code of Honor, which everyone must know by heart from the first month.
This aspect is essential and conditions the life, cohesion and stability of any unit: when we have to integrate Central Asian nationals, who have never slept in a bed, it is a matter of getting them used to living "in a bed". the western ”;
when we welcome young people from certain eastern countries, who sometimes had to steal to eat and lie, it is essential to educate them in the brotherhood of arms, to instill in them respect for the rule and to make them feel, if necessary, the strength of authority.
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Finally, beyond this training, the legionary must understand that he is entering a new and fundamentally just world and that he becomes a member of a new family: he knows that his past, whatever it may be, belongs only to 'to him, that like all his brothers in arms, he starts again from zero and that he will be appreciated on his merits, his way of serving and his potential.
But “here, it's like that!
»Does not mean that the Foreign Legion does not want, nor does not know how to adapt to its environment.
On the contrary, recruiting young people, more often from the slums and slums of Europe and the world than from high society, and being intrinsically a "fighting force", its command has the duty to be attentive to developments, both in the societal, technological and operational fields.
Listening does not mean accepting everything, but constantly asking yourself, faced with a new technology or an external fashion, whether we should integrate it, master it, control it or be wary of it.
It is this alchemy which has enabled the Foreign Legion for almost two hundred years to continue to serve France with “Honor and Fidelity”!
