When and how do recruits of the the French Foreign Legion learn French if they do not already speak it?Yet Army ranks will require recruiting in that pool, so the question becomes, how do you manage the language disconnect?
When and how do recruits of the the French Foreign Legion learn French if they do not already speak it?Yet Army ranks will require recruiting in that pool, so the question becomes, how do you manage the language disconnect?
"In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer
They have it literally beat into them. Plus they sing constantly.Originally Posted by jonSlack
See Mouthful of Rocks by Chris Jennings
There are two levels of bunkum to this discussion.
First, American K-12 education is only woefully inadequate if rated against highly selective metrics. When compared with the world population on a capita basis Americans are pretty smart. Select western world, deselect substandard economies, and then forget to correct for ageism and cheating and you put America really far down the list.
Second, I can't remember his name but last time there was a discussion about the lame, crazy, and stupid being recruited and going nowhere, a general quipped that he were one of them. What you do, and where you go is as much smarts as well as opportunities.
There is a thing happening and I've discussed it with other a few times and there are threads somewhere around here about it too. One of the principles of the K-12 education system (and the A&M Land Grant Universities) is the preparation of a soldier force. If those systems are not presenting a wealth of candidates that is one problem. if they are presenting no candidates that is another problem.
Sam Liles
Selil Blog
Don't forget to duck Secret Squirrel
The scholarship of teaching and learning results in equal hatred from latte leftists and cappuccino conservatives.
All opinions are mine and may or may not reflect those of my employer depending on the chance it might affect funding, politics, or the setting of the sun. As such these are my opinions you can get your own.
FFL language lessors - Simon Murray's book
Perhaps, a more balanced view. Re-read it recently in connection with Horne, Galula and Trinquier.
http://www.amazon.com/Legionnaire-Ye...ref=pd_sim_b_5Amazon
Legionnaire: Five Years in the French Foreign Legion (Mass Market Paperback)
by Simon Murray (Author)
-excerpt-
.... With me were two Germans, a Spaniard, a Belgian, and two Dutchmen. Everybody was tense. The tape played in English, and I was informed that I was about to sign a five-year contract and that when l had signed there could be no turning back. The voice that came over the loudspeaker was solemn and had all the gloom of a judge pronouncing sentence of death. I wanted to talk to it, I wanted to talk to anybody who was English, but it was a one-way dialogue and it was decision-making time. We listened in silence and nobody said anything, nobody started shouting to get out, nobody cracked or lost their nerve or gave way to rising panic. Then we filed through into an office one at a time and signed the contract. It comprised three enormous tomes of unintelligible French. Attempts to read it were discouraged and would have been pointless, anyway.
PS: selil. Not to start an argument since education is your department and not mine. The 30% figure has nothing to do with US ranking in world education (a separate discussion), but those that can meet Army standards. Perhaps, that figure has not changed since Mich State started as a land grant college. If so, you probably have the stats on that. Another point in the 30% figure is lack of physical and legal health. The article doesn't break out that stat. So, it is also possible that the same % that failed there would have failed in 1940, 1960. Don't have any stats there, but I suspect you do.
Regards
Mike
Further PS - selil. There is some stuff re: your inquiry in War Crimes thread, but I haven't had time to post it - maybe this weekend. Damn day job.
Last edited by jmm99; 08-27-2008 at 06:55 PM. Reason: add PS
FFL English instruction
Murray is a bit dated since he signed up in 1960. Today the "kinder and gentler" FFL has formal classes in rudimentary French, both military and common, for non-Francophones while they are at Castelnaudary. As much as possible engages are buddied up with a French speaker in the section who helps during initial training. But one must also learn on one’s own in order to become proficient.
However, as Tom points out, le Caporal-chef will expect you to understand his orders tres rapidement, or there will be consequences desagreables. At a minimum you must quickly learn to be able to properly report to the company commander:
Engage volontaire Rollet,
Trois mois de service,
Premiere compagnie,
Section de Lieutenant Danjou,
A vos ordres mon capitaine.
Sloane's The Naked Soldier is one of the better memoirs of the FFL in recent times. Many books have been written by deserters who obviously have it in their best interest to paint the Legion in as poor a light as possible. However, Legionnaires are never accused of being either Boy Scouts or saints.
"What is best in life?" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women."
Now wait a second. If you don't tell me about what I do for a living I can't tell you about what you do and dang it.. That just wouldn't be fun.
I had considered the idea of physical fitness and health. With physical fitness there is a huge issue because (I'm told by the PE people) physical education is not about physical fitness anymore, and about life long love of sports. The first not a requirement for watching NASCAR. The second issue I have been told by a recruiter (consider suspect unless somebody can corroborate) is that asthma and other ailments are being diagnosed more now (better testing tools not more asthma) and that decreases the potential pool.
As to education and capability there are huge issues (no student left behind is horrible). It is hard for some people to remember that the school system in the United States is the equivalent of tiny fiefdoms with no real standards across the system. High stakes testing does not equate to standards and in some cases holds back innovation and education. The fiefdom concept is good for creativity, but bad for standardization. The other side of that is a school that produces a creative business entrepreneur who failed never gets credit while a school that produces A+ geniuses gets credit even if they eat out of the garbage can.
Sam Liles
Selil Blog
Don't forget to duck Secret Squirrel
The scholarship of teaching and learning results in equal hatred from latte leftists and cappuccino conservatives.
All opinions are mine and may or may not reflect those of my employer depending on the chance it might affect funding, politics, or the setting of the sun. As such these are my opinions you can get your own.
Army opens prep school for dropouts to fill ranks
THis experiment seems IMHO to be a return to pre-1914 schooling in the UK, not for other ranks, but officers. We then had a plethora of private schools, mainly boarding schools, with Officer Training Corps and a good percentage joined up - for the military or colonial service. I am sure others have written on this theme, from non-military viewpoints.
After the Boer War the British Army had to think hard on the lessons learnt from recruiting a large field army from the industrial masses - who they found were physically weak etc.
Methinks someone has been reading up on the history of recruiting armies.
davidbfpo
I don't know whether it is better testing methods that is leading to increased diagnoses of asthma, but it was a frequent entry on applicants' medical histories when I was in recruiting (2000-2002).
"Law cannot limit what physics makes possible." Humanitarian Apsects of Airpower (papers of Frederick L. Anderson, Hoover Institution, Stanford University)
We see it quite often at the ROTC level, too. And all it takes to get someone disqualified is one occurrence of the 'a' word in a medical record...even if it was one incident when the applicant was four years old and has never appeared since.
I suspect that, like many other things, the definition of asthma has been broadened in a diagnostic sense.
"On the plains and mountains of the American West, the United States Army had once learned everything there was to learn about hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare."
T.R. Fehrenbach This Kind of War
Which is ironic, because "asthma" in younger people is one of the most misdiagnosed maladies today (according to my children's doctor [an allergist, obtw.]).
Most often, it is a sensitivity or allergy to something, which children often grow out of. It's really frustrating to lose otherwise exceptional applicants to stuff like this. Apparently, the military medical profession has this freakish worst case scenario (which will never, ever happen, obtw) where "but what happens if the soldier gets an asthma attack when they're trying to carry their buddy 20 miles out of harms way, and the US Army has uninvented Medevac, or even ambulances?"
I know several soldiers, including myself, who have served 20+ years with disqualifying conditions, to include in combat, that just don't matter, in a "real" combat situation, versus some MSC doc's fantasy scenario.
Frankly, the medical quals are more or less irrelevant. (Short of terminal cancer).
So cadences and an aggressive Combatives program. Problem solved.
"In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer
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