He was in Algeria because it was a French colony that received its independence (I am not completely clear on the history here), but the ground Soldiers were good people. The recounting of his day to day life in one of the toughest military units in the world is riveting. At the beginning of January there is to be a referendum which will be held in France as well as Algeria.

Simon Murray (businessman) - Wikipedia Simon Murray (businessman) - Wikipedia

Murray's father abandoned the family early on and Murray claims to have had no recollection of him at that time.

Possibly out of the sobering experience he had in Algeria for five years and the many near-death experiences he luckily escapes from. Publication date 2006 Topics Military - Other, History - Military / War, History, Biography / Autobiography, Europe - France, Military, History / Military / General, Military - General, Armâee. But the experiences also seem to have resulted in a camaraderie with comrades-in-arms that lasted far beyond the five years the author signed up for. I recommend it for anyone, especially those that are veterans, in the military, or considering a career in the military.

Legionnaire by Simon Murray - Pan Macmillan Legionnaire by Simon Murray - Pan Macmillan

De Gaulle, after having promised the pieds noir and the Legion that Algeria would always remain l'Algérie Française, reneged on his promise in 1959, and agreed to allow an Algerian referendum on freedom. His motivations for wanting to be a Legionnaire are a little vague (besides a broken heart), but recognisable among all of us who have had the urge sometimes to test our limits and to leave everything behind and take off into the great unknown. In addition to this Simon was a founder of Distacom which made a number of mobile telecoms investments including Madacom in Madagascar, Spice Telecom in India and Sunday Communications in Hong Kong. Perhaps it's no surprise that his wife of 43 years, Jennifer, is the first woman to have flown a helicopter solo around the world . There was only one element, albeit not a minor one though he treated it as such, that marred this story for me - a recounting of a nasty incident in which, upon learning that an officer in charge of his platoon had made a homosexual pass at another member of the unit, Murray flew into a rage and beat the officer up - the homophobia involved was considered a normal attitude in the 1960s, and especially in a military organization, but it is nonetheless very ugly.

Following the vote to separate from France, many pieds noir and some Legion regiments engaged in an attempted putsch, which failed. Anyway it is a very original book in the way its written there is no padding its also written in very innocent way that you'd not get these-days. Judging from how the author has ended up, it’s a sign that army life can indeed do some people some good (it makes a lot of people dead, mind you). Institutions instill in their participants some kind of shortcomings: maybe some learned despair that they cannot function on their own, makes them unable to take care of themselves.