All posts by CREUSS

Story

Welcome to the Military Police

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By CREUSS

stories by CREUSSI’ve been serving in the foreign legion for years now…

Good time, bad time… depends…

No regrets…

No pain, no gain, said the enlisted Englishmen… it was right here too…

I was to change of regiment. I was due to get to the new one, next week, on Tuesday… I did not have my “Feuille de Route”, but we always get it at the latest minute.

As we were Friday only, I was expecting having a 72 (a leave for 72 hours – 3 days). Sure it was not signed yet, but I was almost sure I would be free tonight….

In order to move quickly, all my belongings where ready by the middle of the day, and I was just waiting the documents to be signed to get dressed in “tenue de sortie”, and go…

I went to the “ordinaire” (the place where troopers eat) for lunch, and had a nice lunch.

Then I went for the regular haircut, in order to look perfect when I get to the new place.

I was not to be involved in the training this afternoon.

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Story

Overnight Cage Training

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By CREUSS

overnight in a cageWhen I was in the army, we did attend several Commando Courses along my career. I remember once we had one in a place I won’t quote, as there is no real interest in the place location. On week one, we had a lot of training and learning skill. At the beginning of the second week, we had to use what we have learnt the previous week. They wanted us to practice too after a period of stress, specially a “risk run” up and down the fort. For getting the stress they wanted us to get, we had to spend about three hours in a cage.

Let me describe the surroundings. The fort was by the seaside. We could have a nice view on the ocean, and parts of the walls were falling into the sea. On one end, there were moat and rocks that were filled with water at upper tide and almost empty and very damp and muddy at lower tide. This was the period they would love us to run or crawl in stinky mud. On the other side of the fort, it was the beginning of a wild sand beach. As it was a military property, no civilians were allowed miles around.

Training was rough and efficient, and most men enjoyed it a lot as it was really challenging you.

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Story

Skinheads and Legionnaires

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By CREUSS

Part 1

stories by CREUSSI have been serving the Foreign Legion for 7 years, aged 17 to 24. After a couple of years of Service I was a Brigadier Chef, the equivalent of a Corporal. With a couple of mates, Legionnaire or Lance corporal or Corporal, we used to have a night leave at times, and we were enjoying spending our free evening in a Café by the old Roman Theatre. Place was quiet and the owner was rather friendly, as were customers.

When there, we used to have a quiet table at the rear of the café, rather cut from the rest of the crowd. When we were 3 or 4 we used to have at least one row each paying for some beer, so we could have four beers each in one evening, often double of this amount!

You know that legionnaires are not allowed to wear casual clothes at any time when in their first contract. So every time we were having a leave we had to leave the barracks in “tenue de sortie,” our equivalent of number 2 dress. We were not allowed to be outside of the barracks on a leave in combats, too.

One night I was with two of my mates, Legionnaire Mike T., an Englishman, and Brigadier Gary S., a Scot. They were a little it older than me, not much, but still. I was 19 and half myself, just back from the NCO school and to become a Marechal des Logis soon, the cavalry equivalent of a Sergeant!

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Story

Buried Alive

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By CREUSS

stories by CREUSSHere is a true story…

I have accepted to let you know about an experience I had a couple of years ago.

You will notice that there is nothing exceptional, and we agreed in advance with the “programme,” so no surprise…

So, we had a very nice Wednesday in the forest, a few years ago, in February… How surprising as by chance it was probably one of the nicest days of this winter.

My mate collected me at his local railways station, outside of Paris, near Fontainebleau … We made our way to the forest, and parked the car as close as we could, but we still had a couple of kilometres to walk.

We loaded our rucksack on our backs and made our way through the forest.

We crossed a couple of hikers, but not much… they looked at us as we were both wearing French army combat dress, but we ignored the fact…

Within half an hour we get on the site he had planned…

We did start with some bondage games, but this is not the plot right now… I will let you know another time for this part of the game…

I wanted to get buried in the sand, up to the neck…

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Story

The Execution

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By CREUSS

stories by CREUSSThe squad was progressing under cover, along the hill. We were to walk round the enemy camp, and take them from behind.  The Lieutenant gave us this mission, not to overtake them, but to create a second attack, at the same time our forces would invade them from the other side. They call that strategy.  It was a realistic training, against the paras, but we did not fear them!

The leading NCO ordered two of us (me and a good mate) to strip naked but the underpants, cover us with dust and earth, and crawl as close as possible to the camp. We had a river to cross swimming; so naked was better (if not, we would be soaked and noisy when getting to the enemies.)  So we did, and we took the path we were indicated. Others were to walk a longer distance, to get there, taking a bridge about 5km further. Our scout expedition would help to get quickly and safely to the enemies, and save time the attack.  We took the time to be very cautious, and quiet as it would be stupid to be discovered now and let them guess our tactics.

Eventually, we found ourselves very close to their camp. We could see them but not be seen. As the Lieutenant thought, they had very few defences toward the river, as they were expecting us to attack from the other way.  We decided to split up, and my mate made a tour around the camp to have a better view behind the rocks on the left side.  I saw him crawling and moving slowly, toward the spot he wanted to get to.  I would be able to see him from my spot but he won’t be able to see me when he got there.

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Story

How the Army Buried Me in the Ground

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By CREUSS

stories by CREUSSHere is a real story again.

It happened about 25 years ago when I was a soldier. I spent 7 years in the army from age 17 to age 24. We were all professionals, that has to be said, as the military service still existed in those days. As the “elite” of the army, discipline was hard and rough so punishment for misconduct or any failure could be severely inflicted.  We were quite often training in battlefield conditions. Usually, it was a matter of 3 nights and 4 days per training session but it could be longer, of course.

You probably noticed that when you are in a barracks, there is always a place used and/or called the “prison.”  It is not always pleasant to visit, but it happens.  Anyway, when you are outdoors for a few days, there isn’t a fixed prison, so the officers (I am unable to share with you the exact division of the army that I belonged to, let it suffice to say that we were the crème de la crème and the best of the best) have found a simple way to handle “convicts” for over a century – sorry, no pix available.

Here is my first experience:

Actually, I will start my story as my punishment began.  All day long, we were undergoing map reading and compass training. But for some reason I got lost and got back to the campsite quite late – far too late, actually.  I was yelled at until my commander was hoarse and would be punished overnight for my inability to follow orders.

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Story

The Pit: A Story by CREUSS

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By CREUSS

stories by CREUSSWhere am I?

What happened?

I have no idea…

I open my eyes, but it only comes to total darkness.

I try to remember what happened before…

I can’t…

Later, may be hours later, some tiny bits come back to my mind.

I am a soldier. I ‘ve been serving for 5 years now…

We were on a night leave, having some fun in a café, drinking much…

There was a battle in the café, and we fought against civilians.

Suddenly, I remember I fell on the table, probably hit and drunk.

Then, nothing…

I try to explore how I am, as I can’t see at all.

I am naked, totally naked…

My hands are shackled, I can feel heavy metal rings at my wrists. They are chained to the wall, but leave me some movement. My legs are bound too, with metal rings too, and chains. So is my neck…

I am bound to this wall, so I can’t move that much, just enough to be slightly more comfortable, if comfort is existing here…

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Story

The Moat

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By CREUSS

stories by CREUSSThis time, after a few stories, I am back to a true story…

I was in the army, as I explained before… There is no reason to waste time to tell you about my army life…

Anyway, we were into a “commando course,” something quite hard, but rather interesting… Quite a challenge.

I won’t let you know why, but for any reason, I have done something wrong that awarded me to be punished.

As it was not really possible to be withdrawn from the course, the punishment had to be quick and efficient, to impress me and the rest of the squad.

Among the possibilities of the course, there was what we call “une Tyrolienne”. The English call that a toggle rope, I think (but I am not 100% sure of the translation).

From the top tower of the fort, it was possible to slide along the rope, down to the moat. We used to hold us with a special rope to grip both hands on each side of the rope. The bent of the rope could make the speed quite fast…

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