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Comment by thinkingkong | Hacker News Reader

Been a few posts about the foreign legion here recently. Are people thinking about alternatives to sitting at a desk? It seems like the most extreme counter.

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I have found another French invention to do the job (of providing a break from the desk) without the brutal sides of deployed army life: Parkour. It's got it all: Exercise for the whole body, fresh air, multi-sensory interaction with your physical surroundings which really seems to help get the brain back in a more healthy mode than after a few days in front of a monitor.

I think for former criminals who have finished serving their time, the Foreign Legion would be a chance for a fresh start if they chose to keep the new identity that the Foreign Legion assigns to them.

That's largely a thing of the past. You're more likely to be handed over to Interpol than anything else today.

Also, HN-ers beware -- the FFL doesn't take people without military experience, anymore.

That doesn't seem to be true: https://www.legion-recrute.com/mdl/pages.php?id=2&titre=Les-...

In practice, it is true. They have a long line of candidates, and will prefer those with experience.

Source: am a reserve infantryman at 94th RI, 3rd Company. Regularly train with 2ème REP.

> former criminals who have finished serving their time

I would imagine US soldiers with blemished pasts would be candidates

It seems a lot of these volunteer armies are treated not just as expendable, but as a way to remove undesirables from society.

Brought to mind the slaughter of the Donbass volunteer battalions. Russian volunteers "holidaying" in Ukraine or Syria also seem to be just as expendable and similarly include elements of neo-nazis and criminals offered deals.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/09/06/anatomy-of-a-bloodbath/

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