Matt_Fisher
Army.ca Veteran
- Reaction score
- 3
- Points
- 430
As PJ D-Dog and I had the opportunity to discuss this the other night over a few beers (I'm still stunned at the chances of two former CF members now being in the Marines both being stationed in the DC area...).
France's Foreign Legion is one of the countries best force projection tools ever developed. It is extremely convenient to send the FFL into action as there are relatively few weeping mothers, wives or family members that have any political pull in France. Such a force in the US would benefit similarly. They would be the forgotten, underappreciated bastards of US foreign policy and they would love it, for those who joined the Legion joined to live and die as a warrior amongst warriors.
This is an excellent topic, however not too much has been touched upon regarding the US' view on this. First off, if this Foreign Legion was created, would all non-US citizens wanting to join the US Armed Forces have this as their only option of service? Would a green card holder only have the Legion as his only option in serving the US Armed Forces? Or, would the Legion be setup only to take non-citizen and non-permanent residents?
It's not very enticing to a non-citizen to enter the country and serve a 3 or 5 year FFL style enlistment contract in order to gain US citizenship when a green card holder can (technically) apply for citizenship after day one at boot camp under current US immigration law.
There's alot of xehophobic elements in the US that would see a serious security issue with bringing in non-US pers. into the country and training them in military skills.
Under the current post 9-11 counter-terro security concerned US alot of concerns would have to be taken care of.
First off, you'd have to have some sort of pre-screening where the applicant would contact the US embassy/consulate in their own country and have a criminal background check performed. Would this be really that effective in developing countries such as Cameroon, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, etc. where you'd be relying on a questionable source at best from the local authorities. Perhaps such a background check would consist of an initial interview followed by a criminal background check to see if the person was on any terrorist watch list, etc. The list of countries that applicants would be accepted from could be limited to those who were in countries that had decent law-enforcement/counter-terror services and would be able to provide an accurate and timely report as to whether the potential recruit had a criminal record or was on a watch-list for terrorist activities. Also during this initial interview an initial strength test/physical screening would be conducted to assess whether the applicant had the physical ability to join the Legion.
Once the initial screening was completed, the applicant would be issued a special Foreign Legion recruit visa. This visa would only good for entry to a certain US port of entry where the recruit would be picked up at that port of entry by Foreign Legion staff and taken into custody for their service contract. The cost pf trave; to this port of entry would be borne by the recruit. The recruit would also be required to have possession of enough cash to purchase a return ticket to their home country if they did not successfully complete their training, if the recruit did not have the necessary funds to purchase a return ticket, their service pay would have an allotment set up to set aside funds necessary for their return home. If the recruit wasn't able to sucessfully complete recruit training or their initial enlistment travel arrangements home would be provided and their visa would be cancelled.
In order to capitalize on the cost and time involved in doing the pre-screening and to ensure that the Foreign Legion member became assimilated to US society and culture, their service contract should be 5 years. At the end of their initial contract they'd be granted US citizenship and given the option to reenlist or enter civilian life in the US.
Once you've got recruiting and service requirements set up, now comes the issue of officer staffing.
I believe that the Legion should be staffed by Sr. NCOs and officers from the US Armed Forces, with particular emphasis on put on recruiting from the combat arms formations from the US Army and Marine Corps. A Legion Officer's Candidates School would be developed that would ideally mirror some type of special operations selection school, with a relatively high attrition rate to ensure that those who were successful would be the type of leader that would prevail in the worst-case combat scenario. All senior leadership positions in the Legion would be limited to this officer cadre, however company level officer positions could be eventually augmented by Legion members commissioned from the ranks.
The issue of where to base such a Foreign Legion would also be a cause of concern within the US. I could see somewhere such as Guantanamo Bay being used for recruit training. Deserting from this recruit school would be extremely difficult and the recruit would have no choice but to either accept service in the Legion as his new life, or to quit and return to his home country. Once recruit school was done at Guantanamo Bay the recruits would be sent to the operational units of the Legion. Where the operational units could be located would also be somewhat problematic. Many US politicians would be opposed to stationing these units on the continental US. Possibly the US territory of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean might be an option, as would some of the US possesed islands in the Pacific such as Guam may be possible homes? In reality, I don't think that there would be much problem with basing the operational units on the continental US.
France's Foreign Legion is one of the countries best force projection tools ever developed. It is extremely convenient to send the FFL into action as there are relatively few weeping mothers, wives or family members that have any political pull in France. Such a force in the US would benefit similarly. They would be the forgotten, underappreciated bastards of US foreign policy and they would love it, for those who joined the Legion joined to live and die as a warrior amongst warriors.
This is an excellent topic, however not too much has been touched upon regarding the US' view on this. First off, if this Foreign Legion was created, would all non-US citizens wanting to join the US Armed Forces have this as their only option of service? Would a green card holder only have the Legion as his only option in serving the US Armed Forces? Or, would the Legion be setup only to take non-citizen and non-permanent residents?
It's not very enticing to a non-citizen to enter the country and serve a 3 or 5 year FFL style enlistment contract in order to gain US citizenship when a green card holder can (technically) apply for citizenship after day one at boot camp under current US immigration law.
There's alot of xehophobic elements in the US that would see a serious security issue with bringing in non-US pers. into the country and training them in military skills.
Under the current post 9-11 counter-terro security concerned US alot of concerns would have to be taken care of.
First off, you'd have to have some sort of pre-screening where the applicant would contact the US embassy/consulate in their own country and have a criminal background check performed. Would this be really that effective in developing countries such as Cameroon, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, etc. where you'd be relying on a questionable source at best from the local authorities. Perhaps such a background check would consist of an initial interview followed by a criminal background check to see if the person was on any terrorist watch list, etc. The list of countries that applicants would be accepted from could be limited to those who were in countries that had decent law-enforcement/counter-terror services and would be able to provide an accurate and timely report as to whether the potential recruit had a criminal record or was on a watch-list for terrorist activities. Also during this initial interview an initial strength test/physical screening would be conducted to assess whether the applicant had the physical ability to join the Legion.
Once the initial screening was completed, the applicant would be issued a special Foreign Legion recruit visa. This visa would only good for entry to a certain US port of entry where the recruit would be picked up at that port of entry by Foreign Legion staff and taken into custody for their service contract. The cost pf trave; to this port of entry would be borne by the recruit. The recruit would also be required to have possession of enough cash to purchase a return ticket to their home country if they did not successfully complete their training, if the recruit did not have the necessary funds to purchase a return ticket, their service pay would have an allotment set up to set aside funds necessary for their return home. If the recruit wasn't able to sucessfully complete recruit training or their initial enlistment travel arrangements home would be provided and their visa would be cancelled.
In order to capitalize on the cost and time involved in doing the pre-screening and to ensure that the Foreign Legion member became assimilated to US society and culture, their service contract should be 5 years. At the end of their initial contract they'd be granted US citizenship and given the option to reenlist or enter civilian life in the US.
Once you've got recruiting and service requirements set up, now comes the issue of officer staffing.
I believe that the Legion should be staffed by Sr. NCOs and officers from the US Armed Forces, with particular emphasis on put on recruiting from the combat arms formations from the US Army and Marine Corps. A Legion Officer's Candidates School would be developed that would ideally mirror some type of special operations selection school, with a relatively high attrition rate to ensure that those who were successful would be the type of leader that would prevail in the worst-case combat scenario. All senior leadership positions in the Legion would be limited to this officer cadre, however company level officer positions could be eventually augmented by Legion members commissioned from the ranks.
The issue of where to base such a Foreign Legion would also be a cause of concern within the US. I could see somewhere such as Guantanamo Bay being used for recruit training. Deserting from this recruit school would be extremely difficult and the recruit would have no choice but to either accept service in the Legion as his new life, or to quit and return to his home country. Once recruit school was done at Guantanamo Bay the recruits would be sent to the operational units of the Legion. Where the operational units could be located would also be somewhat problematic. Many US politicians would be opposed to stationing these units on the continental US. Possibly the US territory of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean might be an option, as would some of the US possesed islands in the Pacific such as Guam may be possible homes? In reality, I don't think that there would be much problem with basing the operational units on the continental US.
