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French Soldier Recruited

To admiration for America in Afghanistan, thanks to close contact with les soldats américains. That’s what it is purported to be, though bits of it look like it might have been charmingly ghostwritten by Steve Martin: 

“We have shared our daily life with two US units for quite a while - they are the first and fourth companies of a prestigious infantry battalion whose name I will withhold for the sake of military secrecy. To the common man it is a unit just like any other. But we live with them and got to know them, and we henceforth know that we have the honor to live with one of the most renowned units of the US Army - one that the movies brought to the public as series showing “ordinary soldiers thrust into extraordinary events”. Who are they, those soldiers from abroad, how is their daily life, and what support do they bring to the men of our OMLT every day ? Few of them belong to the Easy Company, the one the TV series focuses on. This one nowadays is named Echo Company, and it has become the support company.

They have a terribly strong American accent - from our point of view the language they speak is not even English. How many times did I have to write down what I wanted to say rather than waste precious minutes trying various pronunciations of a seemingly common word? Whatever state they are from, no two accents are alike and they even admit that in some crisis situations they have difficulties understanding each other.

Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and creatine - they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them - we are wimps, even the strongest of us - and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans.

Here we discover America as it is often depicted : their values are taken to their paroxysm, often amplified by promiscuity and the loneliness of this outpost in the middle of that Afghan valley. Honor, motherland - everything here reminds of that : the American flag floating in the wind above the outpost, just like the one on the post parcels. Even if recruits often originate from the hearth of American cities and gang territory, no one here has any goal other than to hold high and proud the star spangled banner. Each man knows he can count on the support of a whole people who provides them through the mail all that an American could miss in such a remote front-line location : books, chewing gums, razorblades, Gatorade, toothpaste etc. in such way that every man is aware of how much the American people backs him in his difficult mission. And that is a first shock to our preconceptions : the American soldier is no individualist. The team, the group, the combat team are the focus of all his attention.

And they are impressive warriors! We have not come across bad ones, as strange at it may seem to you when you know how critical French people can be. Even if some of them are a bit on the heavy side, all of them provide us everyday with lessons in infantry know-how. Beyond the wearing of a combat kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to annoy them in the slightest. On the one square meter wooden tower above the perimeter wall they stand the five consecutive hours in full battle rattle and night vision goggles on top, their sight unmoving in the directions of likely danger. No distractions, no pauses, they are like statues nights and days. At night, all movements are performed in the dark - only a handful of subdued red lights indicate the occasional presence of a soldier on the move. Same with the vehicles whose lights are covered - everything happens in pitch dark even filling the fuel tanks with the Japy pump.

And combat ? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all - always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay. That is one of their tricks : they switch  from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the enemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting : they just charge ! They disembark and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions later - which cuts any pussyfooting short.

We seldom hear any harsh word, and from 5 AM onwards the camp chores are performed in beautiful order and always with excellent spirit. A passing American helicopter stops near a stranded vehicle just to check that everything is alright; an American combat team will rush to support ours before even knowing how dangerous the mission is - from what we have been given to witness, the American soldier is a beautiful and worthy heir to those who liberated France and Europe.

To those who bestow us with the honor of sharing their combat outposts and who everyday give proof of their military excellence, to those who pay the daily tribute of America’s army’s deployment on Afghan soil, to those we owned this article, ourselves hoping that we will always remain worthy of them and to always continue hearing them say that we are all the same band of brothers”.

The gushing may be a tad Euro-styled, lacking only a couple of oo-la-las and a sacre bleu, but whaddaya expect … Jean Wayne? This bolsters my argument that we should invade France again, so they’ll like us better.

OK, cheap frog jokes aside, this brave and noble French soldier should be saluted for his salute to American soldiers in a largely unappreciative world, and you may want to read the comments and add to them at Serendipitous Altruism, where Jean-Marc Liotier did the translation.

With a nod to Argghhh!!! French original here.

Welcome, American Thinker, who reminds us that while French-bashing is fun, we have lots of friends there, No Pasaran among them. Welcome also strapping American gunslinger Flopping Aces. Etal. Always good to see all of you. Come on in. Hey, you know about DoD’s important Faux Coconut research, right? It’s a military artifical intelligence thing. No jokes please. Corruption is also big in local news today: Boston City Council War Crimes/Hungarian Porn Activist Busted! Also, Pay As We Say … not as they don’t.

Topics: Afghanistan, America, France, military

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:59 pm on Thursday, November 20, 2008

8 Responses to “French Soldier Recruited”

1. Sean Bannion Says:
   November 21st, 2008 at 7:58 am

   Those are the American infantrymen (and scouts) I remember.

   I may….may just have to revise my opinion of the French.

2. French Praise for American Soldiers | The Anchoress Says:
   November 21st, 2008 at 11:48 am

   [...] Friend Michael, this must must must read. It will do your heart, soul, sinews, lungs, kidneys and brain good, translated [...]

3. RebeccaH Says:
   November 21st, 2008 at 2:20 pm

   I guess you have to get to know us to like us. I’ve never been one to bash the French (too much, since the Dissident Frogman is one of my favorite blogs), but this is truly a refreshing and reassuring take on the European view of us.

   Thanks for the link too. Am I right in assuming that blog is hosted somewhere in Africa?

4. RebeccaH Says:
   November 21st, 2008 at 2:25 pm

   Oops. Answered my own question, after the appropriate investigation.
   Apparently not located in Africa, although the blogowner seems to have an interest in news from that continent.

5. Feels good | Think Forward Says:
   November 21st, 2008 at 4:42 pm

   [...] we shouldn’t over generalize the French. h/t Anchoress. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Feels good”, url: [...]

6. If You Can Gain The Respect Of The French, Well, That’s Something « The Reluctant Optimist Says:
   November 22nd, 2008 at 8:04 am

   [...] probably contradictory of me to post this just above the “Pussification of the Western Male” essay I just talked about, but it is [...]

7. Terminus Est » Blog Archive » French perspective on the American soldier in Afghanistan Says:
   November 24th, 2008 at 8:39 am

   [...] isn’t a new article from Jules Crittendon but I just read it today and it was both inspiring and hilarious. This part was especially funny: [...]

8. PRAISE for our troops « The Salty Pundit Says:
   December 1st, 2008 at 2:14 pm

   [...] for our troops Wow, PRAISE for our troops from the French. Very uplifting [...]

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