Author(s): Simon Murray

Military

The well dressed young man was little prepared for the consequences of the naive impuse that took him to the grim Old Fort in Paris one cold winter morning. As the massive gates swung open he was confronted by a soldier dressed in Khaki, a blue cummerbund, bright red eqaulettes, white gaiters and a white kepi. The Legionnaire slammed the doors shut behind him.

Five short years later Simon Murray left the lengendary French Foreign Legion a battle-hardened veteran, a man who had plumbed the depths of physical and emotional experience. In this unsparing journal he describes how he endured a military discipline that drove strong men to desertion and suicide. He felt the forging of a transcending esprit de corps that made the Legionnaires the most feared of the elite corps of warriors. And he watched the climax of the legion's romantic history when president de Gaulle agreed to Algeria's independence, ending a generation of war.

Murray kept a unique diary of hard living, harsh discipline, and the military tradition of "March or Die". Murray, now one of the most successful international businessmen, was educated by his experiences in the Legion, and is still inspired by his memories of it.