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Show 4A The alt LiUe Tribuni. vunda The Legion Marches On , But Pace Has Slowed Since Beau Geste lanuarv D, IVu Bored Legionnaires Wish For a Chance lo Fight By Mort Rosenblum AP Special Correspondent The French Foreign Legion. 8,500 strong, remains ever alert to wade over dunes, jump out of planes or kick down doors for the glory of France But most of the time, no one needs the legionnaires e It's the same Foreign Legion that King formed in 1831 and P C. W ren made famous with the novel Beau Geste. But the world around it has changed. Camel charges are out of fashion. Just ask legionnaire Rudi Burda, who earned medals in Indochina, Algeria and in nearly every French skirmish since. Today he is a kindly grandfather, still in uniform but working in an office, designing greeting cards and the like "Oh, I miss the action a little," says Burda, 54, a top sergeant from Austria who joined in 1949. He still grumbles that a sudden Vietnamese onslaught kept him from Dien Bien Phu. "We were already up in Dakotas ready to jump, but just at that moment there was too much fire, he says "Two days later, Dien Bien Phu fell. That was in 1954. the last battle of France's Indochina War. Now Burda is art director at the Kepi Blanc, the Legion's monthly magazine named for the jaunty white hat that is the legionnaire's trademark At the next desk, a young legionnaire hangs on Bur-da'- s every word "I wish something would happen somewhere, just once, so I could get to fight, says the youth, a Belgian not long enough in the ranks to be permitted to give his name. But I like it here." The Foreign Legion moved to Aubagne, a featureless industrial town near Marseille, after Algerian independence in 1962 forced it out of its proud fort at 5 Louis-Phi-lipp- But it brought along the imposing Monument to the Dead and its relics, including the wooden hand Capt. Jean Danjou lost in 1854 when 2,000 Mexicans attacked and 65 legionnaires fought until the last five, out of bullets, charged with bayonets. Like Burda, the men here do the Legion's business, keep its books, count its socks and print its calendars and Christmas cards. Most of the 8,500 legionnaires are in bases strewn across the world. Some still find truth in the instruction of a general from their legendary past: "You, legionnaires, have become soldiers to die. Me, I will send you to where death is." In 1978, the 2nd Paratroop Regiment from Corsica jumped on Kolwezi, Zaire, to stop rebels from Angola who threatened French and other European lives, and President Mobutu Sese Seko's government. Legionnaires joined the Multinational Force in Beirut in 1983. They lost 20 men to terrorists and snipers and accidents, in most cases forbidden from returning fire. This year the 2nd Paratroop Regiment returned to Zaire to scour the jungle for French rafters lost on the river. Mostly, however, the Legion guards, trains and waits. At Kourou, in French Guiana, legionnaires watch the European Space Agency launch pads and work on roads and bridges. Their only fight was a recent bloody brawl with local townsfolk. In French Polynesia, they guard nuclear test sites and work on roads and bridges. A large force is based in the steaming heat of Djibouti, a former French colony on the Red Sea. and a detachment is in Mayotte, a piece of overseas France near Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Nearly half the men are French, but there are 104 other nationalities, including Americans. Cole Porter was one. So was Alan Seeger, the poet, Hans Hartung, the painter, six princes and a few Trappist monks. Since the Falklands War, British recruits approach 10 percent. Germans, once the most numerous foreign- ers, total 8 percent. Officers are mostly from the French army. That proves the men fight for a flag, not money," says Sgt. museum. Hugh Riviere, guide at the two-stor- y Lt. Col. J.B. Chiaroni, the legion's spokesman, explained, "We entrust arms to foreigners to defend our soil, as a weapon of the French Army, the same as a tank or a nuclear submarine." WiJ&s. - S" V 4 Asiociofted Photos m Sows. e f ; ? V - - . The old recruiting poster above, promising adventure and the exotic, beckons would-bsoldiers, criminals and nameless souls to join the French Foreign Legion. The era of Beau Geste has left the forgotten legion to the reality of harsh discipline, endless training and little action in recent years. Legionnaires, right, march in parade on the Champs de Elysees in Paris. It was e formed by King in 1831. But the world e Louis-Phi-lipp- around it has changed. Some 1,100 to 1,200 men are selected each year from between 6,000 and 7,000 applicants, Chiaroni says. We give a rigorous medical examination, an intelligence test and we ask why they want to join." Most applicants find they just do not fit into society, Chiaroni says. About 20 percent are here for security they want to camouflage themselves for a while." False identities are not uncommon, but murderers and serious criminals are not welcome. "If someone has had a small problem which proves he is a man, well, that's something else, Chiaroni says. The anonymity and romance attracted Wrens Geste brothers, who signed up as Smith and Brown in the 1920s and ended up in a desert mud fort, holding off howling Arabs from the crenelated ramparts. Terms have not changed since a recruiter told Geste: "You will be a soldier of France, entirely amenable to martial law, without any appeal whatsoever. Your friends cannot possibly buy you out, and your consul cannot help you, for five years. Nothing but death can remove you from the legion. There is a slight flexibility. Men are given up to six months to reconsider, and with a very good reason, might be excused during that period. By then, after four months of boot camp, they are running 16 miles over rough terrain with a pack. Legionnaires get regular army pay, double the basic training and a severe disciplinary regimen. Afterward, they are recommended for French citizenship. On the beach at Calvi, Corsica, a young West German in the 2nd Paratroop Regiment described himself as a typical case. Well, I had to get out of Germany, he said, "because I had a little problem with jail. Asked what, he simply smiled and smacked his left fist into his right palm. "It is crazy here, crazy, he said. "After two years, everyone is crazy. Train, work, train. Crazy. An Associated Press correspondent encountered two British deserters several years ago in Somalia. They had walked three days across open desert to escape. "We could not take any more. said one, who did not give his name. "We were up at dawn, running all morning in the sun, carrying rocks, digging, working, until late at night. It was not human. Chiaroni says the modern legion applies no punishment not used in the regular army. Of 80 percent of recruits who finish five years, he says, 40 percent reenlist. But, he adds, the legion is not soft. In 155 years, the legion has lost 35,763 men, including 903 officers. My men would die for me because I would die for them, a young officer recently told Canadian author John Robert. The old Algerian slogan, "March or Die, is out of fashion. But the legions motto. "Honor and Fidelity," is emblazoned on its colors. And "Legio Patria Nostra (The legion is our fatherland) is often tattooed on the arms of legionnaires. We have to be ready at all times to intervene wherever we are ordered, Chiaroni says. "In between, there can be frustration. Excess energy is channeled into looking the part. The legion has retired the baggy red breeches and long overcoat, buttoned back at the legs, as described by Wren. "How much more attractive and romantic than the familiar British uniform that seemed to suggest Hyde Park and nursemaids, rather than palms, oases, Moorish cities and desert warfare. But their hat, the proud white kepi, remains. And During our far-o- ff campaigns creases down the back of legionnaires tunics are sharp enough to slice cheese. Most legionnaires are immediately distinguished by their hair and necks, or rather the lack of either. The "boule a zero zero cut is not required but is fashionable. The rigorous training develops hard, ropy muscles from shoulders to ears. afternoons in Corsica, troops practice parachuting on the beach near their base, amply populated with topless tourists who watch in awe or On sunny In more isolated posts, morale can be a problem For one thing, prudish politicians have abolished the "authorized military bordellos. Chiaroni calls that a mistake. "It is a simple glandular question, and you have to face it. Music is part of the tradition, from stirring marches to Edith Piaf's Je ne regrette rien (I regret nothing), which was sung by one regiment in Algeria in 1961 on its way to punishment after being involved in an attempt to overthrow Charles de Gaulle. In the late 1970s, the Socialists and Communists pushed to disband the legion. There was support from Corsica where AWOL legionnaires killed two shepherds and a tourist. The National Assembly thought otherwise. Each April 30, the legion commemorates the Mexican battle, Camerone, and Danjous hand is paraded with the green and red colors. Afterward, everyone eats boud.n, a blood sausage, and attacks the liquor ration , Facing fever and fire , In our pain ue forget Death which forgets us so little , IFV, the Legion. r a tat e and frierd of thf H earn Hotel I tah u choir man of the Hotel s ?5th Annuersary Committee Steorts Sung to a cadence of 88 steps a minute: J employee Harold Smoot was born in the Not until I met him did Hotel Utah learn the fascinating details. I was born in a sixth floor corner suite overlooking the Temple and the bank. It seems my mother refused to go to the hospital for the birth of her third child (me1). My older brother had pneumonia and my sister had measles or mumps, I can't recall which. When mother refused to go, Grandfather Nibley had the sixth floor wing cleared and she checked in. I was born December 20, 1920." The doctor in attendance was Lorenzo Snow. Mr. Smoot, now a Salt Lake City resident, said his grandfather, C. W. Nibley, visited with J. P. Rockefeller in the early stages of financing construction of the hotel. He later became a director and still later, a resident. Young Harold often visited his grandfather at the Hotel Blah from the family home in Washington, D C. Hu father, Harold Reed Smoot, left Salt Lake after World War II where be had operated a brokerage house in the hotel at the site now occupied by Maurice Anderson's store, "Eloixe at The Plaza has nothing on Harold at the Hotel Utah. I ooked on Fisherman Knit Catch the hottest look to come ashore this season the fisherman knit sweater' Pullovers rich in nubby texture and cable stitching Naturally, the advantages are many The ramiecotton fabric means seasonless wear and lightweight warmth Its oversized proportions promote ease of fit and comfort The colors are subtle, or turtleneck sweater in yet never go unnoticed white and powder soft pastels of pink, It. blue or yellow. SML Reg N. u) s t-- ,v " 19.99 f ' 'v7 NV X.. 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