SImon Murray enlisted in the French Foreign Legion just before his 20th birthday in February 1960 and served a five year hitch ending in 1965. It is a minor miracle that he went the distance. In fact he rose to the position of Chief Corporal in a paratrooper regiment and was solicited to be a candidate both for sergeant and an officer. During his stay in the Legion he kept a diary and made entries every day, although based on reading the account of his experiences I am doubtful about his fidelity to daily diary updates. Murray was stationed in Algeria during the latter half of the war for independence, and was briefly caught up in the attempted coup against DeGaulle by the OAS.

Murray is an excellent storyteller and has a gift for painting a portrait of Legion life in detail and shows a keen ability to read human beings and make what is most likely a spot-on assessment of most of the characters that crossed his path. Suffice it to say that any romantic ideas about service in the French Foreign Legion are squelched right away. Training, service, both at the front and in daily life, are a nearly unending recital of brutality, cruelty, sadism, suffering, and extreme duress and that's putting it mildly, without even counting the administration of punishment for offences minor and major. Even celebrations like Camerone Day (a remembrance of an event during the French occupation of Mexico in the 1860's) and the Christmas holiday were orgies of drunkenness and sometimes broke out into serious episodes of violence. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating read, and Murray is a more than an able chronicler of the trials of life in the Legion. ( )

Amazing story.

Normally I shy away from books laid out like a diary displaying dates on every page, but Legionnaire was an exception. Sometimes the training stories got so brutal I had to put it down and sweat. But you can see that after Simon Murray made it through what he made it through in the French Foreign Legion he could do anything. Hell! even Amway would be easy.

Like George W. Bush's biography this one was written clearly and cleanly. And not being a political biography, Mr. Murray simply told it as he saw it.

One thing that non-Baby Boomers don't realize, is that us boys growing up, when we'd have a really hard time with our parents, we would threaten to run off and "join the French Foreign Legion." If we'da known how tough it was we wouldn't have been saying that. ( )

Interesting book. I enjoyed reading it. I learned the FFL does a hell of a lot of marching, most of it seemingly pointless. My only complaint is that for a legendary military unit, the author's amount of combat seen and his combat experience is massively unimpressive. I think your average US GI in Vietnam had to endure more and worse in one week than the author did in five years with the FFL. Sort of shattered the mystique for me. But nonetheless, an interesting book. Recommended. ( )

Legionnaire by Simon Murray. Read this again in August 2017. I cannot understand how this book was not a top seller and then made into a film. Simon Murray has such star quality personally and is a good writer. Recommended as one of the best ever books on the French Foreign Legion.
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Bought a copy and read many years ago. Well written and informative account of the FFL from the perspective of a new recruit. Clearly shows how the free-will and conscience of the men is suppressed and subverted so as to turn then into killers, willing and able to attack and suppress civilian populations. ( )