OK, what did the Romans ever do for us? Asked some comedian, I think.
So what did the Legion do for me? Well, it started by turning a wayward young sailor of 16, heavily into alcohol, into a reasonably good shape soldier in Algeria. Not a bad start, I reckon. Then I became a paratrooper in 2 REP and fought various skirmishes along the mountain ranges in eastern Algeria.
In June 1962 I went liberable as a 1ere classe legionnaire in Marseille, hired on a Norwegian ship, basically where I had left off 5 years earlier in Dakar. On Christmas Eve 1962 I knocked on the door of my mother’s apartment in Oslo, nearly eight years after leaving home as a 15 year old kid. By then I had only seven years of basic education. I spoke four languages fluently, but could only get jobs as a casual labourer in the harbour unloading ships, which was hard work. Four years later I was working as a civil engineer in a consulting engineering office in Oslo, wearing a white coat with a slide rule and pencils in my breast pocket.
So how did I do it? Well, that’s where Legion training comes in. Firstly you set a goal, then you go for it. Being tired is not an excuse, you just think you are tired. This is, I reckon, one of the basic tenets I took with me from the Legion. You feel dead tired,don’t want to study any more math, or whatever. Then you remember the endless marches through the Algerian mountains, and you say to yourself, hey you’re not really tired yet. It took me just three years to cover high school and a bachelor degree in civil engineering. With another year at university I had also obtained a masters degree.
Without the discipline and toughened up of the Legion I would never have gotten anywhere near where I am today, a happily comfortable retiree.
So what did the Legion do for me? Well, it started by turning a wayward young sailor of 16, heavily into alcohol, into a reasonably good shape soldier in Algeria. Not a bad start, I reckon. Then I became a paratrooper in 2 REP and fought various skirmishes along the mountain ranges in eastern Algeria.
In June 1962 I went liberable as a 1ere classe legionnaire in Marseille, hired on a Norwegian ship, basically where I had left off 5 years earlier in Dakar. On Christmas Eve 1962 I knocked on the door of my mother’s apartment in Oslo, nearly eight years after leaving home as a 15 year old kid. By then I had only seven years of basic education. I spoke four languages fluently, but could only get jobs as a casual labourer in the harbour unloading ships, which was hard work. Four years later I was working as a civil engineer in a consulting engineering office in Oslo, wearing a white coat with a slide rule and pencils in my breast pocket.
So how did I do it? Well, that’s where Legion training comes in. Firstly you set a goal, then you go for it. Being tired is not an excuse, you just think you are tired. This is, I reckon, one of the basic tenets I took with me from the Legion. You feel dead tired,don’t want to study any more math, or whatever. Then you remember the endless marches through the Algerian mountains, and you say to yourself, hey you’re not really tired yet. It took me just three years to cover high school and a bachelor degree in civil engineering. With another year at university I had also obtained a masters degree.
Without the discipline and toughened up of the Legion I would never have gotten anywhere near where I am today, a happily comfortable retiree.