JonSR77
Senior Member
I sent this as a message to a very nice person on here and she thought others would like it. She mentioned this thread.
Well, the story goes, I had a relative from Belgium. He actually joined the French Foreign Legion. He fought with them and North Africa and lost his life, fighting the Nazis.
I believe he is buried in France, not Belgium, I guess related to his service in the Legion.
I have a photo of him, that I will post. I am guessing he was about 14 when the picture was taken.
Anyway, I am named after him (middle name).
I feel honored to be named after him, but absolutely do not feel like I deserve it.
So, I do know that the French Foreign Legion often took on extremely high risk operations, especially in the early part of the war. And they also, I believe, did a lot of operations behind enemy lines.
So, I do think they had high casualty rates.
My father and step-father both served during WWII. My step-father was stateside, at Fort Dix.
My father served in the Army Corp of Engineers. They were developing experimental pontoon bridges and other things for the D-Day landings. They were time pressed and many of the soldiers, including my Dad, were seriously injured during training. After that, he was made an MP. My Dad was fluent in German, actually born in Germany. But we have dark hair and eyes. So, they had my Dad spy on the German prisoners, to overhear their conversations. He did catch them with some illegal contraband. They were hiding some kind of highly advanced miniaturized radio.
So, anyway, those are a couple of WWII stories. Will post the picture of my cousin who was in the Legion.
And, of course, for all vets out there...thank you for your service!
Thank you for risking your lives to protect the rest of us!
Well, the story goes, I had a relative from Belgium. He actually joined the French Foreign Legion. He fought with them and North Africa and lost his life, fighting the Nazis.
I believe he is buried in France, not Belgium, I guess related to his service in the Legion.
I have a photo of him, that I will post. I am guessing he was about 14 when the picture was taken.
Anyway, I am named after him (middle name).
I feel honored to be named after him, but absolutely do not feel like I deserve it.
So, I do know that the French Foreign Legion often took on extremely high risk operations, especially in the early part of the war. And they also, I believe, did a lot of operations behind enemy lines.
So, I do think they had high casualty rates.
My father and step-father both served during WWII. My step-father was stateside, at Fort Dix.
My father served in the Army Corp of Engineers. They were developing experimental pontoon bridges and other things for the D-Day landings. They were time pressed and many of the soldiers, including my Dad, were seriously injured during training. After that, he was made an MP. My Dad was fluent in German, actually born in Germany. But we have dark hair and eyes. So, they had my Dad spy on the German prisoners, to overhear their conversations. He did catch them with some illegal contraband. They were hiding some kind of highly advanced miniaturized radio.
So, anyway, those are a couple of WWII stories. Will post the picture of my cousin who was in the Legion.
And, of course, for all vets out there...thank you for your service!
Thank you for risking your lives to protect the rest of us!
