Episode 375 - Joel Struthers

Cleared Hot

Society & Culture

4.9 • 11K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2025

⏱️ 152 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Joel Struthers spent six years as a legionnaire (and more specifically as a member of the elite Group Commando Parachutistes). The French Foreign Legion, a branch of the French army, is one of the most famous military organizations in the world.

Joel is the author of Appel, A Canadian in the French Foreign Legion, which details his time with the Legion, his experiences, the selection and recruitment process, and combat deployments to Africa.

Joel is also a helicopter pilot and a partner in a Canadian risk mitigation firm that solves difficult problems in challenging environments

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Good morning, everybody. Welcome back. How many of you have heard about the French Foreign Legion?
0:06.4	Now, second question. How many of you, even though you know what the French Foreign Legion is, or I should say what it stands for, really have no idea what they do and the individuals that encompass the French Foreign Legion?
0:20.1	I fall into the latter category. I knew
0:23.2	what the acronym was. I understood it had something to do with the French military, but I really
0:28.5	didn't know anything about the individuals that comprise it. The beauty of the internet that allows
0:35.0	people to reach out. My guest today is Joel Struthers.
0:39.0	He is the author of the book Appel, which chronicles his experience in the French Foreign Legion.
0:45.6	He's Canadian, probably French Canadian. He speaks a little parley-vous-francé, if you will.
0:51.5	And more importantly than all of this, he's now helicopter pilot, which anybody
0:56.8	following kind of my journey through aviation knows. That's probably what I really wanted to talk
1:00.4	about. And we talked about it a good amount. But what a cool way to understand why somebody
1:08.3	would want to join the Foreign Legion, what they do, what the process entails,
1:12.6	what you do make it through selection, what are you able to do, what are you expected to do,
1:16.7	what does your life look like, what are the benefits of serving in the Foreign Legion?
1:20.4	Really cool.
1:21.3	First person I've ever actually sat down with with individual firsthand experience in the Foreign Legion.
1:27.3	So that would be my guest today. Before we get to
1:29.3	my guest, stay with me. Give me 90 seconds. Let's pay the bills. Let's keep bringing the podcast to
1:34.9	everybody for free. Thank you. Today's episode is brought to you by Black Rifle Coffee.
1:41.1	We're diving straight into the website right now. For those of you who are listening,
1:45.1	you can just listen and follow along. For those of you are in a video format, you can see what I'm
1:48.2	looking at. Focusing on their D2C, direct to consumer offerings. Looks like there's a Valentine's Day sale,
	...

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