Joel Struthers spent six years as a legionnaire (and more specifically as a member of the elite Group Commando Parachutistes). The French Foreign Legion, a branch of the French army, is one of the most famous military organizations in the world. Joel is the author of Appel, A Canadian in the French Foreign Legion, which details his time with the Legion, his experiences, the selection and recruitment process, and combat deployments to Africa. Joel is also a helicopter pilot and a partner in a Canadian risk mitigation firm that solves difficult problems in challenging environments Today's Sponsors: Black Rifle Coffee- https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ BetterHelp- This episode is sponsored by/brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/CLEAREDHOT and get on your way to being your best self.
Chapter 1: What is the French Foreign Legion?
good morning everybody welcome back how many of you have heard about the french foreign legion Now, second question. How many of you, even though you know what the French Foreign Legion is, or I should say what it stands for, really have no idea what they do and the individuals that encompass the French Foreign Legion? I fall into the latter category. I knew what the acronym was.
I understood it had something to do with the French military, but I really didn't know anything about the individuals that comprise it. The beauty of the internet that allows people to reach out. My guest today is Joel Struthers. He is the author of the book, Appel, which chronicles his experience in the French Foreign Legion. He's Canadian, probably French Canadian.
He speaks a little parlez-vous Francais, if you will. And more importantly than all of this, he's now a helicopter pilot, which anybody following kind of my journey through aviation knows. That's probably what I really wanted to talk about. And we talked about it a good amount. But what a cool way to understand.
why somebody would want to join the Foreign Legion, what they do, what the process entails. Once you make it through selection, what are you able to do? What are you expected to do? What does your life look like? What are the benefits of serving in the Foreign Legion? Really cool. First person I've ever actually sat down with, with individual firsthand experience in the Foreign Legion.
So that will be my guest today. Before we get to my guest, stay with me. Give me 90 seconds. Let's pay the bills. Let's keep bringing the podcast to everybody for free. Thank you. Today's episode is brought to you by Black Rifle Coffee. We're diving straight into the website right now. For those of you who are listening, you can just listen and follow along.
For those of you on a video format, you can see what I'm looking at. Focusing on their D2C, direct to consumer offerings. Looks like there's a Valentine's Day sale, which should be ended because this is the end of February, but hey, maybe it's still going on. And then there's a 30% off President's Day steal instead of sale. I see what they did there.
You can shop coffee, you can shop apparel, you can shop gear, and you can shop energy. Now energy over here on the right is the newest of offerings, but I've covered that twice. Let's go back over here to shop coffee and just see where this takes us. You can look at their roasts. All right, this is scrolling us through. And this is, again, depending on what the person likes.
There are dark roasts, medium roasts. There are coffee rounds. There are instant coffee. I mean, you name it. This is everything coffee related. Coffee grinds. This is something I've never understood, mostly because I've never been a dipper, but people who dip essentially coffee, a little bit wild to me. It goes on and it goes on and it goes on.
Now you could go just click on the top coffee up top and actually it's bringing us right back where we were. So you know what? We're going to go one more over. Actually, we're going to go to gear because this is what I'm looking for. This is things that you can drink coffee out of. You got mugs, you got thermoses, dog belts, Yetis, Chemex, you name it. So if you love coffee,
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Chapter 2: What motivated Joel Struthers to join the Legion?
My issue is, as a Canadian, it's embarrassing to watch how we're reacting. And we don't have a leader that has the mandate for the next four years to deal with it effectively. That's what's embarrassing. Alberta, their minister has gone down, Mrs. Smith. She's gone and talked to them. I think she's the sole, you know, One to do so.
Meanwhile, the others just kind of argue between themselves on how we're going to react. But I think it looks poorly in the way I say things. Canada can do better. I don't know. I don't think, you know, I think Trump gets kind of said that his big push is obviously for the cost of living for Americans, right? To improve things.
Throwing terrorists on is going to cost, you know, a lot of the products come from Canada. So that's going to cost your average consumer more money anyway. So I don't think he'd like to start his mandate that way. I'm hoping, you know, for our sake. And I mean, we're going to take. All his points are valid, especially our spending on defense.
I think as a NATO member, I think it's minimum 2%, if I'm not mistaken. GDP, right? Yeah, and we're at 1.3.
Most countries that have agreed, they're well below their commitment.
And I, you know, I get, I mean, obviously there's the, you know, each country has its debt. The United States has been the, you know, the police force of the world for a long time. But, you know, at a certain point that costs money and you see the results run away.
If Canada can pull up their socks and be a, you know, a better member to NATO, our military has been decimated for the last eight years, that's for sure. You know, obviously, we have the borders with Russia. There's nothing we could do. So we count on you guys. And he's correct in that. You know, if something happens, we're counting on Big Brother to help.
So I think your average Canadian would like to see better. I certainly would, coming from a military background. It's disappointing. So we should see. It'll sort itself.
Where in Canada are you from?
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Chapter 3: What is the process of becoming a helicopter pilot?
332, sorry. Okay, I've seen those. Okay, I've seen those. And then the Super Pumos coming into effect when I left. So we would do the Halos out of those. And then they had the Super Fraylon. How do you spell that? Yeah, so Super is Super. And the Fraylon was Fox, Romeo, Echo. F-R-E-M-O-N. Yeah, F-R-E-L-O-N. I understood what you were saying. Michael's over there in vapor locks. And I think...
I think one of the original, um, uh, Rambo movies, they use that as a, uh, a hind. I actually could see why that, that has, but it's, uh, it's like a single, single rotor system. Chinook really size wise. It's got the ramp in the back. They don't use them anymore. I think the French are the only ones or sort of the Chinese are the only ones that still fly them.
Reminds me a little bit of an American 53. Yeah.
Yeah. Fair one. Yeah. Jolly.
Okay.
Yeah. Um, so that, you know, being in the back, watching the guys all the time, um, Yeah, I just, it was neat. And then I came after six years, I was 29. And it was either in the Legion, you can do eight years or you can do 15 and get a small pension at 15.
Nothing after eight though.
At eight, you get, you actually get everything back that you put into the social system, like your taxes. So you get a chunk of change back. Interesting. Yeah. Because you're not going to be using it, right? So they got back to it. And the Legion, we can come back to it later on, but Legion is a part of the French military. So you're paying into the French military. tax system.
So at 29, I was kind of looking at my peers, seeing what was happening. This is all pre-9-11, so the global war on terror was not happening yet. And things were becoming somewhat repetitive. And I was always a guest in their army. I was always Canadian. I didn't get my French citizenship. I could have. And I decided to come home. Knew nothing about helicopters, especially on the commercial side.
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Chapter 4: How did Joel transition from military to civilian life?
No, I wasn't flying. It was just... Oh, gotcha, gotcha. The position was called Operations Liaison Coordinator, OLC. And Halliburton was down there drilling. Essentially, they were teaching Sonotrek, which is the Algerian oil and gas national company, how to do things. And Algeria had a terrorism issue.
So they had hired an OLC who would sit on the rig, which were protected by the Algerian army or the police. And you were the liaison between the drillers. It was easy money. You hardly left the rig. You sat around. Yeah.
It's a good way to replenish your savings account.
Well, yeah, exactly. So I'd do that. And then I'd come back. And then at 800 hours, he gave me the endorsement on the A-Star, the flat B, with a mountain course in Penticton. And then in Canada, you need a minimum of 500 hours PIC to fight fires. So I started fighting fires with the A-Star. And then 2003, Iraq kicks off. I'm up in Fort Nelson doing seismic or something at the end.
It was coming towards the end of the season. And our group says, would you be interested in going over to Iraq? And this was early October. So I think you guys rolled into Baghdad. March. March, April? Yeah. OK. And because of the relationship they had with Iraq, Hallie Burton, and Hallie Burton was Kellogg Brown Route at one point. Yeah. They split pre the war.
KBR was given the DOD log cap contract to build all the bases or the camps.
Staff all the chow halls, all sorts of stuff. They were all over.
So initially, they reached out to Armour Group, Kellogg Brown Route, and it was to... man up a couple PSD teams using Iraqi nationals so that when their executives flew into country, they could go from A to B and check out these sites. So it was an ex-SAS guy, Britt Intel, because Armour Group's ex-Britt Mill officers that created it. Two RMPs, which is our British Royal Military Police.
And they had all the, they had the course from, I think it was the Ronan course that they did pre going into back in the Ireland days. The SAS were doing a lot of the close protection and stuff. Anyway, I was a lone legionnaire. I think the reason she had asked, I dealt with a nice, Caroline Ruett was her name. She was the operations manager for Armour Group. I had a crush on her.
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Chapter 5: What challenges do helicopter pilots face?
So we, I just remember we're up on the third floor. We got there or whatever the second floor that we had and we're cleaning them, stripping them. And the head SAS guy, his name was Taff while he was a Welsh, right? Big fucker. And in fact, he was, he wrote, he wrote a book. It wasn't, he was in the other detachment, not Bravo 2-0, but he's the one that they went on wheels over the border.
Nice guy, big guy, gentle giant. But I could just see him watching us, right? Trying to figure out who these, and I'm sure me, because you know, the CVs would have come through, right? And they're all expert males. So he understands that they have a level of training. But he was like watching Joel, right? Because the Legionnaire, what does that mean? And then we, we went downstairs and,
The KBR security was run, they had their own little security run, and it was a gentleman named John Jones, he was ex-Delta, had been on the failed Iranian rescue attempt.
Oh, Desert One.
Yeah, big guy.
Which was actually the reason, that's why Delta was created. Actually, that's why JSOC had had its origin, because of the catastrophe there. That was the beginning of it all.
And I'll certainly have, I'm interested in your experience with them in Iraq, you know, being attached to the, that's a, anyway, so we got them all cleaned up. We go downstairs, they had a barrel of, you know, full of dirt, just do a shot to just make sure that they, it worked. And we went around into the, into the bucket or wherever, and they were fine. So then a week later.
We had a soft skin for excursion. So we'd go to the green zone to get our admin work done because they were getting issued the DOD badges. And this is obviously early days. So, I mean, the east side was that Assassin's Gate would become Assassin's Gate.
Oh, yeah, man.
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Chapter 6: What is heli-skiing and how does it work?
I was going to say, take it slow, but also remember the cash register is winning.
So it's efficient and safe, right? And every year that you fly, you get better because you have that gut feel, right? And that first year, and I remember, I slept well. We were done, I'd be back with it.
hotel like fucking out you know from the stress right but you don't have that you don't have that gut feel to say this is fucking and we have some fucking super experienced guides and they're looking at you and they're they're good enough where they'll say yeah no this is and flat lights we can come back to it flat light is the fucking killer man yeah depth perception oh it's just a nightmare right
And they'll be quick to say, hey, this is not good for me. They don't like it. But you might get the guy that doesn't. He's pushing it. He's trying to get good snow. And a lot of times, if his clients are happy, he's getting a nice bonus, a nice tip at the end of the day. And you don't have that experience to say, yeah, this is fucking shit, right?
Whereas you get those seasons behind you, you're like, fuck that, man. I'm getting paid. This is not worth it. We'll go somewhere else. So some guys will make the cut. At the end of every day, the guys have their meeting. And they'll come back and say, hey, you know, fucking, and we had a couple landings there with, you know, Joel that were spicy, you know, like fucking.
And then, you know what I mean? For example, which is good, right? And so they should, and as a group of pilots, if there's an incident or concern, the lead pilot would say, hey, Joel, like fucking, this is what the guys were saying, you know, do you agree? You got any concerns? You want to go out?
And then the environment I liked, because on the fires, every pilot's a fucking hero and no one's going to say, oh, I fucked up today or I missed that drop. Everyone's like...
the skiing environment it was like we got some experienced guys we got some new guys and if you come back and they say how was your day and the guy says oh it was fucking it was easy you're like what you're fucking full of shit man because it's not easy right and you'd have you could listen to an experienced guy come back and say hey man I lost my ass on that fucking landing today and it was it was close you know and young guys can soak that up and then they're not afraid to fucking come back and say hey man I fucking had a hard time because there's certain landings
That are conducive to fucking challenging landings. And it is going to catch you at some point, right? And then, yeah, as you get used to the terrain, because we're flying in shitty weather, man.
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Chapter 7: What are the experiences of flying in Australia?
I'm going to be honest. This is the pace Leo walks at. She tells me I'm a fast walker.
Oh, really?
And I look back and I'm like, have you considered that you might be slow?
But, you know, after four weeks, that's pretty impressive. You can take, you know, individuals from every different background. Like the Russians, their alphabet's different.
Oh, Cyrillic.
Yeah.
I mean, let's be honest, that sounds and looks badass.
Yeah, it's impressive. I mean, it's, and they don't change it because if it ain't broke, why fix it, you know? What does the black hat mean? So those would be sergeants. Okay. They're NCOs, so you have a black, as with the officers, but their ranks, those are probably sergeants.
Okay.
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Chapter 8: How do personal experiences shape a pilot's career?
Then you have your three months, you're back at the regiment, and then they get into the firearms, the exercises, and you learn basically, the idea is that every legionnaire that departs the training regiment, when it gets to their differing regiments, they have the base of a legion, like the Marine Corps.
Actually, the legion is probably, if anything, it's similar to any arm, the military, it's probably the Marines. You know, everyone's a rifleman, and then they. And then based on the four months, there's how you finish in your course. The top ones, they let you choose. And then obviously towards the bottom, they start to send you where you want to go.
You have to be a volunteer to go to the rep, which is the airborne regiment. And then off you go. And every regiment differs. Anyway, so I went to the rep, and I joined the first company, which is fighting in Phibia. There's five regiments, or sorry, five companies. And one's amphibious. There's the mountain. There's the first, which is fighting in built-up areas.
And then the other one, the fourth, which was, I mean, they had mortars, snipers, all that kind of stuff. And so I got there in, what was it? I did six years. So I was in the GCP for four years. So that was 94. And then I did selection for the GCP.
So, and that's where, you know, I think I sent you that, uh, that clip once, but, uh, the difference in, in their system is, um, it's not necessarily that you volunteer. They'll say, Hey, Joel, are you interested in going GCP? Because you need to be signed. So that's the group. So that's like the pathfinders for the, uh, for the, for the regiment.
Um, guys can be volunteer, but you need to be signed off by your, your lieutenant and then the company captain, um, Typically, you know, it's a small regiments 1500 strong So it's a captain that runs the GCB team and they're all obviously a small community their talk So they're gonna say to their comrades or the company captains. Don't send me fucking retards.
You know, just send me So that being said if there's problem childs in a company they might say alright off you go, right? Because as you know, sometimes problem childs make good good soldiers, too, right? But anyway, so I did the selection for the GCP. And you had to be a minimum of a corporal. And I was a private, probably first class at the time. And yeah, the process is somewhat different.
It was a three-week selection process. And it was a group of, I think we were 20-odd from the different companies, a mix of corporals and first class. They put you through the original, you know, the typical selection.
The big staple for the French military, especially in the Legion, is you do a 1,500-meter ruck run in a certain amount of time, and then you get, I think, five minutes, and then you do 8K run. That's the big one. Then there's the assault, common assault course. And then for the GCP, it's a 35K run. Okay.
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