Joel Struthers is a former Legionnaire, or member of the French Foreign Legion, a helicopter pilot, and the author of the books Appel, about his time in the Legion and Civil, about his life as a private military contractor after the Legion.
He’s now a commercial helicopter pilot and the managing partner of Ravenhill Risk Control, a Canadian risk mitigation firm that solves complex problems in challenging environments.
Joel also owns LegionEngineered.com, which publishes historical nonfiction books about the military. His third book, Finex, was just released, and you can find it, as well as Appel and Joel’s other books, at Legion Engineered.
The best way to learn more about Joel or the French Foreign Legion is to read his book Appel, which is available on Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audio formats.
You can also connect with Joel on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-struthers
And he’s on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/joelastruthers/
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro to Joel Struthers
00:01:00 Career Overview
00:03:36 French Foreign Legion and the Military
00:06:15 Who Can Join the Legion?
00:08:30 Pay Scale for the Legion
00:09:19 New Passports/Legion Name Changes
00:10:00 French Foreign Legion Pay Scale
00:10:56 French Foreign Legion’s Brutal Training Reputation
00:12:52 Legion Career Training Stages
00:17:03 Learning French During Legionnaire Training
00:19:27 Filtering Out People Joining for the Wrong Reasons
00:23:27 Building the Elite Sidenote
00:24:55 Mix of Backgrounds of Recruits
00:26:48 Areas Where Joel Struggled in the Legion
00:27:54 Lack of Time Off During Training
00:29:42 Training Daily Routines/Living Conditions
00:34:38 French Foreign Legion Common Myths
00:36:58 What Did You Learn About Yourself in Training?
00:38:53 What is Deployment Like?
00:41:50 Struthers Years of Service
00:50:15 Operators From Different Countries
00:55:38 Follower Questions
- 00:55:55 Would You Encourage Your Children to Join the Legion?
- 00:57:06 Dealing With the Legion as Regular Officer
- 00:58:56 Transitioning Into a New Culture
- 01:00:17 Chance of Dying Perceived on the Job
- 01:01:14 Mental Fortitude Development
- 01:02:26 Most Interesting Skill Learned
01:04:02 Learn More About Joel Struthers
01:05:24 Outro
Building the Elite Podcast