VERY nearly the end of the world.... 30 years ago

[Drax]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24280831

[Sailor]

Armageddon's always only just round the corner. For example: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/s ... olina-1961

And then there's the apocalyptic/apocryphal story about the Russians launching a strike just after Fylingdales was opened. The phone calls went up the chain of command until, just short of alerting the PM, some bright spark noticed that the attack was ultra slow. What sort of weapon was this? It turned out that the predictive maths had not included the moon coming up over the horizon.

[macky_6]

i watched a pretty cool documentary recently where the Russians were convinced that the Americans were gonna strike and the Americans ran an "exercise" on the same day. They were so convinced this simulation was real that there was a guy with his finger hovering over the button of the fuelled missles with his ear to the phone waiting for the orded to launch. Scary stuff

[mercutio]

you would be surprised the amount of times I was kitted up and sat waiting didn't do a lot of that in the legion we just went in and asked why later

[Drax]

you would be surprised the amount of times I was kitted up and sat waiting didn't do a lot of that in the legion we just went in and asked why later

guessing you were once in the French foreign legion then....?

[Sailor]

An uncle of mine went into the Legion after WW2. He wasn't French and he didn't change his identity through the exercise, but he did spend a lot of time in Vietnam - or Indo-China as it was then. Rarely spoke about it. He did drink a lot, though.

[mercutio]

you would be surprised the amount of times I was kitted up and sat waiting didn't do a lot of that in the legion we just went in and asked why later

guessing you were once in the French foreign legion then....?

yes buddy for a bit

An uncle of mine went into the Legion after WW2. He wasn't French and he didn't change his identity through the exercise, but he did spend a lot of time in Vietnam - or Indo-China as it was then. Rarely spoke about it. He did drink a lot, though.

they change everybodys id now as a matter of course after 12 months you can revert back to your own the legion had a bad time in Vietnam/indo-china buddy look up dien bien phu.
I have been in some actions parachuting into a hot landing zones but nothing will ever compare to that.

[Donald]

What's with the name changing?

[lewd lude lover]

foreign legion used to be the one place you could run to if you were in shtick and basically disappear. So long as you were fighting hard you were not asked who you were on the out or who might be looking for you. You died when you joined and were reborn as a legionary. As it were.

The legion was employed by the french as a non french ''shock brigade'' or ''no one will notice if no one comes home'' kinda deal. You didn't need a name if you were probably going to die anyway and they got sent to all the really nasty places you might want to send a regiment of marginally desperate forigners who will fight for the chance to not get sent home....to the gallows or prison etc...
that was all a long time ago though.....


At least thats what my history cards say in my brain. Am I about right merc?

[Donald]

Alright merc, what did you do you naughty boy?