 The friend for Legion is our family. I thought you were going to say 53 then and then I'll be like, yes. You join the friend for Legion, the Legion say yes, we will give you a second chance. 10% of our officers are coming from their own ranks, who they are foreigners. They give you free beer basically. Thomas, how are you brother? Thank you, thanks Chris, I'm fine, and you? Hey, I should say commentale vous. Comment allez-vous? Chevez bien, très bien. Bien, bien. Yes, my French is un petit. Tu parles français un petit peu. Oui. We learned it at school. But you know yourself. You have to live in a country to really remember and get fluent. And in a legion, you have to, everyone has to learn English. Is it no, everyone has to learn French? Everyone has to learn French, yes, that's it. But I guess also a lot of guys are speaking English, and then they're obviously their native languages. They try to, but if you speak another language in the friend for Legion, then French, you will make a lot of push-ups. That's the point. It's easy to make push-ups in the military, hey? It's easy, you learned that. It's the first thing you learn in a friend for Legion, how to make push-ups. And what is, Thomas, what is your nationality? So I actually, I'm German. So, but it's a little bit mixed because I was born in Germany. So I am a native German. My mother was a Freuline, German Freuline. And my father was an American, a G.I., you know. So my mother was white, like a German lady should be. My father was black. And I'm the result of this leation. Yes. And how old were you when you joined the Legion? I've been 23 years old. So it was in 1985. And if I could do it one more time, let's guess, I would have joined when I have been 18, for five years earlier. Why is that? Yeah, because 23 was a little bit, I don't know. I think that the Legion was, for me, a very good experience. A life guide, a red line in my life. And I wished I could have had this red line a little bit before. You know. Yeah, there was something missing, you know. There was a gap. Yeah, I was 18 when I joined the Marines. But now it's all changed. It's a lot of really older people joining. Now you can join when you're, I think, somebody put in the comments, but I think it's 32, which is really old, right? I mean, I think at 32. You're talking about the Royal Marines, right? Yes, yes. Listen, in the French for Legion, you can join until the age of 39 and a half years. I thought you were going to say 53 then, and then I'll be like, yes. Where do I sign up? No, it's 39 and a half actually, right? And for us English people, we have a very romantic view of the Legion because we grew up, or my age did, with, do you know the novel Bojeste? Yeah, yeah. This young man, he's from a very privileged background. He commits a crime or maybe he didn't commit it, but he has to escape. So he joins the French for Legion and goes to North Africa. And yeah, that was our, that's the sort of stuff I grew up with. But I guess, I mean, is the reality that lots of people join to escape a criminal conviction? Yeah, absolutely. Not always. I'd say that coming first to the romantical view of the French for Legion, as you know better than I do, you know Sir Simon Muray, who has been in the Legion five years, a British gentleman. He joined, he also came from a privileged family. His parents had been rich, and he joined the Legion to come out of this, I would say, hamster wheel and go into the reality. And he was looking for a romantic part of his life and he get that he stayed five years and then he joined the civil life. And I guess he took a lot of romantic views from the French for Legion to his, who will stay in his memory, right? Yeah. And in my time, it was also that I have taken a lot of good memories, good souvenirs, the romantic way of life in a soldier's life. You know, I've been two years in the French for Legion in the Third REI. And this is the jungle regiment in French Guyana. So we are based in Kourou. And, you know, I have, I could have joined the second rep for the Troopers. I could have joined the 13th DBLU for another regiment in the French for Legion, even go for medals, go for intervention, or go for money. But I didn't. I choose the adventure. And this was in the French for Legion's Third REI. You know, deep jungle crocodiles, machete running through the bush with a big rucksack on my back. This was my romantic in the French for Legion. This was perfect. What indeed was the question? Your question. Repeat, please. Oh, it's just we have this idea. Well, we don't now, but we used to in the old days that we thought so many criminals just escaped, escaped to France and joined the Legion. Yeah, that's still true. I think that the French for Legion is still today. It always, always was, but it's still today. One of the only institution worldwide. Who give you guys whoever it is a second chance. And this is very important to understand. You know, let's come to Germany when you have a criminal record. You know, your chance is over. Done. Finish. You cannot have a good job and you have. You are kind of badass that in the way that nobody takes a piece of bread from you because you have a criminal record. And, and, and it's always like a stigma in your life. It's like a, it's like a, let's say something is not good. It's not working out. You can do this job. You can take this job. This entrepreneur will not take you because of the criminal record. The French for Legion gives you guys a second chance. If you are on it. If you are a very team player. And if you are able to forget what's behind. If you're able to see forward to looking forward. They give you a second chance. And the Legion goes further than this. The Legion gives you a second identity. Because when you join the Legion today, you automatically will earn or have another name, a second name, a wrong name. Right. And we call it anonymity. Or in French, we say tooth identity declare. What means you come in the French for Legion. Your name is Alphonse Courts. The French for Legion will make out of you Anton Kakalu, whatever, you know, that's it. And coming back to the criminal record, if you have done something in your country and the police is knocking on the door, the French for Legion and they asked for Anton Courts, the French for Legion say, no, we don't know this guy. And this is true. And this is true. They don't know this guy because your name now is another name, you know, they protect you. And this protection is very, very important. This is one of the most important things the French for Legion can give you the protection, you know, and the protection is 100%. But we have to know that when I say criminal record, it does not mean that the French for Legion takes everybody. When you have blood on your fingers, when you are a high drug, drug guy, you know, dealing with heavy drugs. When you are a murder, when you have blood on your fingers, they will not take you. Yeah, I get it. I get it. That's it. Does that mean then, see, I've said this, I've said this several times on my podcast in the Marines back in my day is changing now because things are the environment is softer. Yeah, but back in my day, you've got some really violent people. And you didn't want to, you know, like, like their touch paper, but especially when they were, you know, six foot, sorry, your metric, but you know, I don't know what it is in metric, but there's this giant guy and you just had to go, okay. Yeah. Or you had to fight and you get smashed up. Is that the same then in, was that your experience? Did you get some guys that, like if I mess with him, he might kill me when I'm asleep? Yes, of course. I had this experience even very often, even very often. But you know, when I joined the Legion, I was in the bootcamp in Kastunodari. And I met a lot of kind of bandits and gangsters and outlaws, you know. And let me tell you an example. I had, once I had to deal with a Turkish guy, his name was Erdogan. No, not like the president was a real Erdogan. And once he wanted to take my boot, and I wanted my boot back. But the guy, Erdogan, he had three or cut friends with him. And all of them has been about what 20 kilos more than me. Books are bad guys, really bad asses, you know. But in these, in these situations, you have to find your place. You have to impose yourself. If you step back, you're lost forever. And that, and you have to take the fight. You know, in this time, in this example with my boots, I didn't fight, but my friend did and he was standing behind me. He was a British gentleman. His name was also Chris. He was an Ancien fighter from the fight land. He was in fight land. And he made the things for me. He did my job, but it didn't give me a chance because he was too quick. So he took, he punched the guys, took my boots back, bring my boot, brought my boot back to me. Here, Thomas. And he told me, Thomas, never accept that one guy talks to you in this way. Next time this happened, you will do your fight yourself. And this was, was an advice. And after this experience, I always remembered his words. And then it was like this. And the next time I had come in a similar situation, it was my fight. I accepted the fight. And that's it. You know, that's French for Legion also. You have winners. You have losers. But you don't have to be a guy who steps back, who turns around, who flees. If you do, you're done. Your image is done. And it's not good. Yes. I got you. Because once you might be an NCO, you know, a superior, an NCO, even maybe an officer. And if the story goes around that you are somebody who flees all the time because he's afraid. No. No chance. Yeah. Thomas, you mentioned in South America what was the name where your base was Kaikoura? The French for Legion, they have one regiment. It's a third REI. They are based in South America in French Guyana. Yeah. This is between Suriname and Brazil. And the place, the city is called Kourou. Kourou. Yes. And the camp. I've been there. I've been there. I've been there. I've been there. I've been there. I've been there. I've been there. I've been there. I've been there. Okay. Yeah. Is it the European space station is there? Yes. The AESA is the European Space Agency. And this was also one of our main project to protect the Ariane rocket, you know? Yes. I loved South America. I've traveled every country in the Americas, north, central and south. Well, at least on the mainland. I camped out in the jungle in French Guyana. And I also went to Devil's Island, you know. The pinealcolar. Great. I've been there a lot of times here. It's incredible. Isn't it? The history. Genuine, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And I guess you know the story of Papillon? Yes. Papillon with Steff-McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Yes. a true story and I think one of some scenes has been turned on the devil's island there yeah and I have been there several times and I saw the old buildings you know very impressive yeah I saw on the floor in one of the death cells the solitary confinement Papillon had he chiseled his name said Papi in the floor it was incredible and what is the training like where did you train and I'm guessing it was pretty tough you we are talking still about South America don't we uh no about the the legion itself where do you go to train where do you do your training this depend on in which regiment you are serving you know in the in the third area in South America we trained and we had a jungle warfare school there called safer Sontra, Entranimo, Forre Equatorial and it was in a deep forest in a camp we called Matei camp Matei yeah it's on the Mataroni River and this was our basis camp and there we trained to deal with all kind of dangers you know uh survival jungle warfare and all this stuff this was our basis training basis training camp and then uh the next I spent two years there and then I was ordered to join the second rep it's Deuxième Regiment étranger des parachutes these are the it's the only paratrooper regiment the French for Legion has and there we have the basis camp in Conrafali in Corsica but from there we started all over the world to train you know uh my company was uh was the domain of my company I was in the first company was urban warfare so war in built up areas so we trained a lot in Germany in Hammelburg because in Hammelburg there's one city called Bonland and this is the idle place to train in in in urban warfare yeah and then of course we go we went to France to all the big shooting ranges Lacotine and and uh sweep and all and and all the big places where you can shoot all kind of calibers where you can make maneuver with the group with a platoon with even with the company and use all the weapons you have you know in the company and what and what weapons do you train with all kind of weapons you know when you when we take the case that you are in a normal fighting company you train uh let's say we had the pistol mark PR mark 50 then we have a shotgun uh 12 gauge then we had of course the FAMAS FAMAS were just coming out when I joined the Legion uh before it was the mass transceased FAMAS then we had the machine gun a second sniper rifle FRF one then FRF two the difference is the bigger caliber you know and also uh when we come to the sniper rifle we had the magmillan yeah and the HECA to these two arms or two weapons are sniper rifles you can shoot in a range up to 1500 meters and the caliber is the caliber 50 and we also had the browning machine gun caliber 50 we call them DUSET 12-7 and of course in the fighting company we had mortars 81 mortars 81 and the last uh the last equipment we had we have earned was the erics erics is a very powerful anti-tank weapon shooting in a range from uh let's say 50 to 600 meters and this is incredible the erics warhead destroy every tank you every tank in the world you know this this warhead destroys bunkers and and and buildings and tanks of course yeah thomas can can you talk us through from the moment you you go to the recruiting office what what happens then and how how does the training unfold yeah of course I can take my case and it's still the same today in french we have about 11 pills pill is post-tank formation relation at randrea recruiting uh an information desk office there you can recruit uh when you want to join the french for legion so we stayed i stayed one week in strazburg it's the place i joined the french for legion then after one week you are transported to au bannier and au bannier is the first re is the motherhouse of the french for legion and uh in this motherhouse you have the company who is responsible for the the new legionaries you stay there for let's say three weeks and you have to make all the tests you know physical tests uh sport tests medical tests and also background checks from the gestapo gestapo is the let's say uh how can i say military intelligence military intelligence and when you are through when a sport thief and medical and background from the intelligence is good you will be sent to caste nodari and there you'll make your boot camp and it's for three months at least for 17 weeks and it's very genuine it's a very genuine era for a book in your life in the front of the french for legion because as you know better than i do we have about 140 nations all kind of religions all beliefs all colors you know and it's very tough it's very tough because we had to deal with a guy with guys who have never been in the army who don't know that a weapon can shoot and we have to deal with a gentleman who has been already in 10 years or 15 years in their army so we have to make we have to make a kind of group analysis and then you do your boot camp when the boot camp is almost finished in the big oh let's say after the first three weeks you earn your capi blanc you make the march capi blanc it's about 90 up to 90 110 kilometers with the rucksack on your bag you have to do is in three days then they will issue to you the capi blanc i have mine here they issue to you the capi blanc and then you are accepted in the family legionnaire the legion family then when the instruction is almost finished you have a red funded compound what means everything you learn in this in the boot camp you have to do and to show and to prove it's like a school it's like an exam and then uh you have you have to note you know that you will be touched after your your what what you showed them what you are able to do and you have a ranking of course a ranking a ranking going from one to the last and i was the first of my class so i could choose my regimen it's always like this when you're first second or third of your class you can choose the regiment you want to go and the rest has to go there where the friend for legion needs men you know so when you finish when you're through with the boot camp you will be sent to your regiment in my time they've been in in tahiti in mayotte in french guiana in chiboudi and the rest of the regiment in in the metropole in in in france you know and also the fact is is that you at this point of your career and the friend for legion you always speak french very well and you understand almost everything so you are able to join the regiment without problems and then your your career in french for legion starts takes your your beginning you know did you speak french uh not in the beginning when i joined the legion i could say uh bonjour but you learn very quick yeah how how quick uh let's say depends on the the the situations i think three months three months i i will i will give you an example you have to learn french it's it's important i remember always one scene i have been in maybe in your second weekend in the boot camp and we have been uh we were living in in the big room 45 legionnaires together in one big room so and i was to i i just woke up and the door opened and an irish capra stormed in the in the room and he was in front of me and he was screaming serral arranges serral arranges i didn't understand what he want not of work and then he makes me pump it push ups so i made 50 60 70 push ups until my nose isn't lured after this i had muscles like arnold schwarzenegger and then my bino games a french guy and he told me hey tomas he only wanted you to make shine your boots and then i understood and then every time the capra came hey tomas serral arranges i knew that i have to shine my boots and it's in this way you learn french so every day you learn by experience because you have to speak french you have you have to understand and then every day you have courses in french language and it's the platoon leader who give you the courses and every day you learn three words what brings you in the end of the boot camp to able you speak 450 up to 500 words and that's enough so it's very quick it's very efficient you know great and you are you are forbidden to talk in your language this is a very important point do the instructors do they ever say something for example in english because it's really important everyone or do they only speak french the instructors they only speak french in the beginning in the beginning let's say the first three months in the boot camp and maybe the first three or four months in the regiment if you really don't understand what is really seldom yeah if you have english instructors or german instructors and you are german and i'm your instructor and you didn't understand of course i will help you out and i will explain you how things work you know yeah absolutely and did you ever meet christian jennings i don't know the name tells me nothing but i have to see his face when i see his face i can tell you if i know him or not he wrote a book called mouth full of rocks it's a really good book i heard about mouth full of rocks he said that was a punishment they would make you go and fill your mouth with rocks is this true i mean i'm not saying he's lying i mean did you experience this this is maybe possible but i never experienced this no yes i had a friend in the marines in the royal marines and he uh he got kicked out for smoke for smoking dope i mean marijuana right you know hot hash and when he went in front of the commanding officer he said sir if you charge me for this um he said sir i suggest you just let me go right to to sit civilian street he said but if you insist on charging me i will write a book about the royal marines and i will tell the world what really happens in the royal marines and the commanding officer went you're dismissed for anyone listening this is a true story i'm not going to say the chap's name but some people will know the guy i'm on about um i was in training no no no no sorry he said sir i served with the foreign legion and i smoked hash every single day no problem he said i served with the royal marines and i smoke hash every single day no problem you know it was never a print and nobody knew he was a very very good soldier um and then when he said this to the commanding officer the commanding officer said go so i wonder is um is is it normal to smoke hash in the in the legion or is it is it against the rules um it's not normal it's not normal of course uh you know in the french for legion it's not it's not a boy scout school you know yeah it's really it's for men and and of course we were drinking alcohol a lot maybe maybe too much but this is normal because even you have been in intervention and in the intervention norm most of the time you cannot drink you have no alcohol you have no drugs so it's intervention when you're in the garrison this is another world so when you are in the world in your garrison you want to go to operation when you are in operation you want to be back in a certain point in a certain way in the garrison you know if you're here you want to be there if you're there you want to be here when you are in the garrison of course uh the legionnaires take smoke hashes smoke mariana they do it most of the time secretly and most of the time it's okay it's not a it's not a problem made out of this and of course when legionnaires are in the garrison they drink and this is also a normal process because when we are in operation we cannot do and when we are in the base in our camps at home not in operation it's a little bit boring you know because our life is of going to operations and yes in the french for legion as in other in every other army and of the world we drink that's okay it's no problem we have we are no boy scouts we are soldiers we are men and some of the legionnaires smoke hashes and mariana that's okay also i think the most the biggest problem in this in this world in this team is are the officers you know 10 percent of our officers are coming from their own ranks so they are foreigners and they understand legionnaires they know what we are thinking they know what is going around in our head because they have been through where we have been but the other 90 percent are french officers coming directly from the french officer school maybe from san sir and they don't know the legionnaires very well so uh this is a little bit this is a a little bit the legionnaires problem the french officers because they are not uh they don't understand us very well yeah yes is it true thomas that cronunberg you know the beer company that they sponsor the foreign legion i guess yes they give you free beer basically yeah i guess yes because the french for legion is maybe the biggest consumer of cronunberg in france i heard that they kind of send it out to iraq in afghanistan and this kind of stuff i don't know how true that is yeah it's possible yeah but they were but the same in the same time i will mention before i forget it that the french for legion they make their wine themselves we have a we have a place called plubier it's in the southern french and it's our uh senior institution for for legionnaires we have served in the legion and they go out they have a place to stay you know until the end and there we make our wine ourselves and it's a very good wine wine of the french for legion from french for legion nice yeah yeah that's just we drink a lot of cronum when i was in the marines it was a favorite drink because 1664 yeah that is the birthday of the royal marines okay yeah little bit of a little bit of history there for everybody um do you know i um was reading have you heard of ant middleton no he he does this uh you're probably maybe not familiar but there's a very popular show on television called sas who does wins and he is one of the um the training staff on it and he he was actually in the sbs the special boat service which is the marines special forces but he said in his memoir when he was attached to the french foreign legion he said he saw a kind of family that he'd never experienced before he said at the end of the day everyone would have a beer and they would come around maybe the fire and and sing sing songs um it sounds incredible yeah it's incredible we call ourselves we are a big family you know one of our slogan it's a motto it's legion patria nostra the the french for legion is our family you know imagine you left your country you're coming from india you have a criminal record you want a second chance you join france you join the french for legion the legion say yes we will give you a second chance so you have lost your old family and you're looking forward to have a new family and then your new family is the legion we're coming from all around of the world you know 140 nations all religion all beliefs as i told you and yes of course this makes us strong and this is the biggest uh this is the biggest uh force of the french for legion is the solidarity you know stay together as one is a big brotherhood of arms or yeah that's it yeah yes i'm just looking for excuse me thomas i'm on the internet i'm just looking for some name some name assembly i want to ask you but kenny tells what about swimming what about swimming tests in in your training do you have to be a good swimmer i have always be a good swimmer but when i joined the legion in 85 we don't have had a swimming test now they have but to do this is very easy you only have to be able that you can swim 25 meters without floating it and that's it so this should not be a hindrance or a problem to join the legion and in my time in my time it was that if a legioner couldn't swim in the boot camp they teach them how to swim so once a week they took all the no-swimmers brought them to a swimming pool in in the town yeah and they teach them how to swim so when joining the regiments everybody was able to swim no problem easy going yes there was a tv program have you ever heard of bear grills no no sir i mean you you wouldn't have but he's quite a quite a famous tv celebrity here and he's he's been in the sas he's now the honorary colonel an honorary colonel in the rural marines and it's um he did a program called escape to the legion and he took he took like 10 10 guys 15 guys just i think they were just normally you know regular english guys and he just took them or british guys i should say took them to the they took them to the desert somewhere and the reason i'm asking i wanted to find the name there was a chat the the commander or the trainer i can't remember his name he was going to come on my podcast but he's never um yeah he's never we've never managed to to to get it together i wanted to ask you if you knew this guy because he's apparently really famous um just bear with me yeah yeah but no problem take your time by the way i can tell you that i worked with royal marines also together not in the army but later than when i have been in the private security so i spent four years in saudi arabia to protect the european embassy there and we have been two teams of 14 men and about four or five guys worked with me there has been in the royal marines and i can tell you that you guys are really tough your your guys are good and i trust you a hundred percent really good good job done by them yep yes yes thank you was was did you say saudi arabia yes in saudi arabia how was that good fun yeah absolutely we have been there for four years and our job was protect the european commission to saudi arabia we had yeah and um did they i bet they paid you very well oh yeah not not like they paid private security in afghanistan and iraq but it was a uh how can i say it a stable job we worked four years we had a contract who was renewed year by year and we worked there for a british company security company it was good and once also we had the opportunity to protect uh bill gates when he was there to to buy the four seasons hotel so he was there for three days and we uh we protected bill gates okay yep yes i'm not going to say anything about that but some of my uh some of my viewers will wish you didn't didn't protect him stop talking about this yes yes exactly yeah um and what about combat did you experience much actual fighting um i can say that i spent 17 years in a leachan and maybe we did less combat that you will think by yourself we had combats of course but not like of course like uh our our more in marjoram our older leachaness we know have have experienced in you know in the big war like indoshin vietnam like algeria war like child war on and all this stuff we had you know with with with the time who comes and pass away we have other we have other war field you know other tier of operations and i can say that maybe my my biggest experience in combat there's been of course in both in the bosnia war where we stayed 92 to 93 uh like the united nation protection force we spent six we spent six months there afterwards we have a small intervention in the central african republic against poachers and then we have been deployed in uh in shiburi we've been deployed in in congo in zaire in brazil you know and yeah it was good it was tough yes sometimes was very tough so originally i'm speaking for our friends at home now um i'm guessing that the lesion was for for the french colonies wasn't it in africa to to support them to protect them to you know have a rule of law or or or whatever did did the lesion get much smaller when the colonies went went back back to the africans yes of course actually we have about 8500 leachaness active leachaners and i i guess that in the algeria war it was maybe five times more you know and then when the algeria war was finished and the french for leaching gets smaller and smaller every year until the effective of the strange of 8500 men yeah and i of course when i when i came to interventions i forget i only spoke for my case for my company of course the french for leaching my time has been deployed and also in somalia has been they have been deployed in kombucha they have been deployed in rwanda after the genocide and after my time they have been deployed also in ivory coast and ivory coast and of course in afghanistan a lot so my regiment has been uh four times in afghanistan yeah was that was that um was that after your time yeah after my time was in 2008 9 and 10 yeah and did you sorry thomas did you say you're in bosnia i have been in bosnia in 92 93 yes was that at the height of the trouble there yes of course we have been deployed at the airport in sarajevo and the city was surrounded by the serbian fighters by the chetniks and it was war it was war yeah yeah did you see any signs of these these these genocides yeah what is we have to make make clear what is the what is the termination of genocide yeah not like it happened afterwards in srebrenica you know uh we are the serbian skilled about uh i guess 7 000 bosnians but uh we have seen of course that's every day every day so our main mission was uh the the crossing the crossing mission so uh imagine that sarajevo has been surrounded by the chetniks and the only uh possibility for the bosnian people to survive has been the airport uh so in the night time they tried to come from budmir crossing the airport going into sarajevo to bring ammunition to bring food to bring water to bring things to survive and weapons it was the only possibility to survive uh and uh our job has been to keep the bosnians away crossing the airport from budmir going into srebrenica to to support their brothers you know fighting there and this was really dangerous and uh uh every night we had about we had about uh seven eight nine deaths not not the leacham but the bosnian we we picked up and they had about 35 up to 45 around people every day and people who had have been dead every day once i remember i seen i was sitting in my in my ammo carrier and my ammo carrier and i had a i had a boy on my knee right knee a girl on my left knee both about seven years old her mother was sitting opposite to me one meter away from me and she had three bullets in her chest and i knew the mother will die in two or three hours she will be dead and there was there was what what what could i say to the boy into the to their child everything is good it's just war it's just bullshit you know and and yeah this is this is also kind of genocide because it happened every day you know yeah did you suffer afterwards did you suffer with trauma i don't know i don't know i think uh for me myself and i maybe a little bit in the beginning it was very strong for me it was very uh curious to be back in a civil life and i remember the first scene where i doubted a little bit if i have btbs or not a trauma and it was a situation i was in i've been in a supermarket was 2002 so i left in 2002 and later i was once in the supermarket and my wife told me uh to buy detergent you know to buy dog food and all this stuff and i was standing in the supermarket and finally it was yeah what they have been detergent red ones blue ones green ones dog food this kind of dog food this kind of dog food and i get crazy and i saw by myself fucking hell what i'm doing here and i wished in this moment to be far away from people far away from the civil persons i wished in this moment to be back in my unit to have a rucksack or a parachute on my back but not here buying nonsense things you know being in a strange world i could not understand and the people didn't understand tomas gas so for me it was kind of a trauma in the beginning and once this was the second big thing i thought i saw a movie was with uh i guess with mel Gibson i i don't remember the i don't remember the name of the movie but it was in sold your soldier fighting in vietnam it was nothing i looked at movie i went to sleep and afterwards in the nighttime in the morning time my wife told me that i was screaming in nighttime and then i was uh boxing my pillow you know and i was sweating and i was you know i was not me myself and i but i didn't i didn't realize that myself my wife told me but later then with the time it steps back it steps back step back i think for me in this moment where i'm sitting and talking to you everything is okay but we never know no yeah that film was we were soldiers once and young exactly and uh there was a unit surrounded by uh flying in with with bell with a bell helicopter and they have been in a big ambush a big fighting and yeah i know i remember now yeah yeah it's a fantastic book for anybody who who likes to read military history colonel howmore he's he's dead dead now yeah he had a chap one of his men was rick rascala who died in the world trade center trying to get the people out um but that book is just it's it it's just incredible you know every evening because they're surrounded by jungle and the the vietcong are just creeping towards them all the time every evening for two minutes he ordered his men just to to let rip into the jungle with everything that they had just in the trees i understand you the next morning when they sent out patrols there's all these dead bodies just you know in the trees everywhere it's just you know obviously an awful situation but a really powerful book really powerful and thomas you you look very fit very strong you know actually i am 60 and i i'm uh i'm a big outdoor fan i might i make survival i make outdoor i i really like to move i just coming back from norway we have a meeting with friends and we made out of a good youtube clip out of this and we have been with the rucksack on our back climbing the mountains yes i make sport every day as much as i can and as much my my body still supports and you know once leech in there always leech in there yes you know yeah march march or die march or die march or creve yes and um what message um before we finish what what message shall we give to young people that might be listening who might be struggling in their life um maybe maybe mental health maybe depression maybe they're unhappy in their job what what what can we say for them thomas i would say that uh to to all the young men who are listening right now always tell the truth never lie this is very important point when you stand up early morning you go down to the bathroom look in the mirror and what you are see is just brilliant believe in yourself what you see in the mirror is just good it may be the best you can find on earth you are unique you are unique and the next tip is that you only have one life and it's your life it's not the life of your wife not the wife of your not the life of your children not the life of your parents or neighbors or friends it's your life in your life you have always to follow your intuition your stomach you know don't follow your brain don't follow the tips or advice is when parents say oh in your life you should do this you you should visit this school you should learn this this is the good profession for you no it's your life you make your decision and when your stomach says your your your uh i say it uh intuition when it says to you or your heart i want to do this because this is my life this is my way go for it go for it listen to advices but it's your decision to make your own life you only have one life it don't last forever and on your grave should not be ridden i live the life of another person i live the life of my parents on your grave should be ridden i did it myself i lived my life and this is very important you only have one and you won't have maybe a second chance yes we have a second chance in the friend for religion yes for our young people listening don't be doing too much of this stuff because that no no no no you'll look like at thomas's age in my age thomas is is it was it 60 thomas yeah 60 60 i'm 21 and that's a joke that's um you don't want to get to your old age and just be playing video games um yep thomas one last thing i've seen you singing singing on your on your youtube channel yeah in fact let's let me ask you how how you have a very successful youtube channel you you have thousands of um i call them friends but subscribers and um how has your youtube journey been you are talking about my youtube history yeah has it been a good experience there's a youtuber yes you know actually i have three channels i have one german is my main channel i have about uh 90 000 followers i have a channel in uh in german also it's called the men's meter men's meter what means uh it's a channel about and for men you know all the problems or or the you know everything around men you know our problems what we can live how we should live our values our virtues you know and all this stuff how we're staying together giving tips and receiving tips and all this stuff i talk about the man's world and there i have about 10 000 or 11 000 followers but i also have an english channel and the english channel channel is called the legionnaire and i think i have about 25 000 followers and there in the english channel i mostly i talk about my military life my past in the french for legion and it maybe could be very interesting for one or the other guy listening right now the legionnaire thomas gas the legionnaire yes that reminds me i must say thank you to a gentleman called fin uh hello fin fin put thomas and i in contact fin's been helping me with my my channel uh very nice very nice man so fin massive thank you to you and fin thanks for your good job fin yes thank you and thomas can can you give us a legionnaire song what kind of song do you want is is there a really popular one uh let me see if i can find it what was the next word this is the song of the second rep you know yes and it's a former song from come from Germany is the it's a former song from the waffenes is yeah yes because the connection there is that a lot of ss officers went or men went yeah during the legion to fight in vietnam um yeah i think i guess that about every second show or song we have in the french for legion has a german background you know has a german background and or and we took the show coming out coming right from the waffenes or from the wehrmacht we keep it with the melody but we put another text and we and we break with the spirit because we don't like nazi spirit it's not good it's not healthy we have our spirit and it's the spirit of the french for legion esprit legion and this is very powerful so we don't identify with uh with any other army and not with the waffenes of course not we are not now and one more thing i i just came come to my memory because before we talked about french colonies you know and the french for legion but in the meantime you know uh the time has changed and the french for legion overall right now today is an army a tool of europe you know and we are making more and more uh human humanitarian missions operations it goes uh pair with intervention and uh humanitarian mission so it's always a little bit the same so when the french for legion the the religion after a second rep made their big deal in sair operation bonnet it was to jump with 700 men over kolwezi and freeing millions and millions of people who have been in the hand of 4 000 katanga soldiers you know in brazil has been the same we have freed hostages you know helped hostage by cobra millies and and and and you know so the french for legion is not there to go to a place to fight for only for french uh colonies and for the french purposes the french for legion is a tool in hands of the european people you know this is very important is a very important messages and the french for legion can fight this is the main the the main our main reason to exist but the french for legion can also build they can build bridges they can build uh they can uh do everything help people everywhere in the world you know to clear clear means ied to go to haiti after the earthquake after this tsunami in india is in swillanka and this is also french for legion we say fighter and butty sir you know yes did you have to we have the weapon in one hand but the shuffle in the other hand yeah yes yes and understood did you parachute thomas yeah i've been 15 years in the second rep in the second rep is the only parachute uh regiment uh in the french for legion yes yes i bet i bet you've done a lot of fun a lot of jumps well maybe yes uh i have done about 320 uh automatic jumps static line jumps and about uh i was i was not a freefaller you know but but i did about 25 jumps in freefall you know but uh yeah it was good in the first year when i've been in regimen i've done 50 static line jump which is very very good but in germany i was part of trooper also because before joining the legion i've been in the falchium jager unit in in in germany i did six jumps a year and in the legion second rep i did 50 a year so it was great you know wow incredible yep so thomas i'm going to wish you all the best i'm i'm going to say a big thank you to you because you are the first legionnaire i've been able to get on my show i've asked three or two or three and two said no they don't they don't want to talk one like i said we we're still trying to get him on the show but so thank you so much for being the the first i think my audience will be fascinated and i think they will have lots of questions so friends at home if you have a lot of questions for thomas put them below the video and then i'm sure thomas will come back on the show at some point or maybe we do a live show together thomas if that's okay with you and we can answer the young people's questions why not chris and i have been happy to be here with you today it was a good experience also for me and every time again if you wish to no problem and yes maybe you can mention the legionnaire my youtube channel in english language i need more subscribers to tell all the peoples out there what's going on in the friend for legion how has been my time and i have also a lot of questions what can i do to join the friend for legion and i'm here to ask or to give an answer to your questions guys yes keep it up i will put a link for your channel underneath the the video thank you and yes friends at home you you heard it from thomas go and go and check out his channel and thomas just stay on the line so i can uh hit the record button off and then i can thank you more um to our friends at home big love to you all look after yourselves i hope you find this fascinating if you did could you please click like on the video and make sure you're subscribed because youtube has been unsubscribing lots of people from the channel we don't know why they just do um i will see you next time thank you