Americans in the French Foreign Legion

The French Army prohibited enlistment by foreigners—except in the already renowned Foreign Legion. Spurred by idealism, yearning for adventure, young Americans signed on in the war’s first months. Many were alumni of top U.S. colleges and universities and scions of prominent families. Others were skilled mechanics, cowboys, drifters, veterans of the U.S. Army’s Philippine campaigns, merchant seamen, and assorted adventurers—including two African American prizefighters, Eugene Bullard and Bob Scanlon. They were thrown in with assorted Greeks, Russians, Swiss, and Turks in the Foreign Legion’s polyglot ranks.
The Legion’s first major combat came in May–June 1915, in the massive French Artois offensive. Among the “American Squad” members missing in action were former VMI cadet Russell Kelly, ex-prospector John Earl Fisk, and MIT graduate and budding playwright Kenneth Weeks (whose body would be found in November).
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Good post and timely since we now have people fighting alongside the Ukrainians even though the United States is not part of the current conflict.

1LT Peter Duston

And presently we have Americans volunteering to put themselves in harms way in Afghanistan and in Ukraine.

MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. Nice share Major. Interesting.