By Ethan Green.

A Marine Raider with Marine Forces Special Operations Command participated in the French Foreign Legion’s Jaguar Course, Feb. 19 – April 14, 2023.

The Jaguar Course is an international, eight-week jungle warfare course held in the French Guiana rainforest. This course was taught exclusively in French, testing participants’ language skills on top of the physical demands of intense training in a jungle environment.

“My initial language was Egyptian Arabic, so I had to learn any French I could in the eight weeks heads up I had before attending the course,” said the Marine Raider, a critical skills operator. “Before I headed down there, the language program got me to a 1+/1+ in speaking/listening on the books. I think it proved that we could find unique training opportunities, regardless of the native language spoken, and use the language program to get us to speak what we need in environments that are otherwise hard to simulate in the States.”

All critical skills operators are assigned an initial core language determined by their Defense Language Aptitude Battery score and any prior language experience they may have. The Marine Raider Regiment’s Language Program seeks out training opportunities like the Jaguar Course to further sustain and improve individual language skills.

“Having a robust language system to enable us to be linguistically self-sustainable in unique training environments gives us limitless training opportunities, which in turn enhances our real-world capabilities,” said the Marine Raider. 
The Jaguar Course is open to a diverse spectrum of students from conventional to special operations forces across NATO and non-NATO countries. This iteration included two Marine Corps volunteers, a scout sniper from 1st Battalion, 8th Marines and a MARSOC critical skills operator.

“Working with other nations in the jungle environment brought me to the realization of a quote my Team Chief often uses – ‘The Jungle is Neutral,’” said the Marine Raider. “It comes from a book written by Freddie Chapman, a British officer who had to survive in the jungles of Malaysia to evade the Japanese invasion in WWII.”

The Marine Raider said success came down to discipline in routine and proactive care procedures. The course consists of four phases – acclimatization, hardening, combatives, and evaluation.

“The jungle training environment cannot be simulated and must be trained in its most authentic, most challenging regions, such as South America or Asia,” said the Marine Raider. “The jungle environment is equally extremely difficult for survivability as it is plentiful in resources. But you can only learn to mitigate all the little unexpected hardships and gain from the subtle resources by conducting realistic training before being flung into wartime as Chapman did.”

The Marine Raider said the Centre d’Entraînement à la Forêt Équatoriale provided an excellent training environment for jungle warfare and is an ideal facility for future combined training exchanges or bilateral training opportunities between Marine Special Operations Teams and the French Foreign Legion.

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This story by Sgt. Ethan Green, MARSOC, was first published by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service on August 24, 2023. DVIDS content is in the public domain.

Photo: A Marine Raider with Marine Forces Special Operations Command participates in an obstacle course during the French Foreign Legion’s Jaguar Course at French Guiana, Feb 19 – April 14, 2023. The Jaguar Course is an international course consisting of eight weeks designed to train platoon-level tactics in the jungle environment. (U.S. Marine Corps courtesy photo, April 14, 2023)

By Christopher (Moon) Mullins.

A striking reminder that all the warrior’s kills, destruction, battle, wars, and narrow escapes from death have an end result on the body as well as the mind. This book narrows the vision to focus on the isolation and helplessness a warrior experiences near the end of their road. As John-Paul Jordan explains; his story is “a testament to the strength of the human spirit; to get back up and lead from the front”. He did not “go thru all that” for the sake of saying I went thru “all that”. A great read for modern Special Forces operators. A straightforward look at the impact of war on individual soldiers.

The Joys of War, indeed, are fleeting as the warrior’s ethos fails to remind modern-day special forces operators who navigate their way through the modern battlefield piling up kills, takedowns, body counts, missions completed, etc.

John-Paul Jordan tells a hero’s tale of volunteering for the French Foreign Legion at a young age. That assignment and the hard, brutal training motivated him to follow that assignment by training for selection into the British Special Forces, Special Air Services. His stories of train-ups and the impact on the body and mind will resonate with the modern-day Special Forces operator. John-Paul also served in mercenary forces, my words here, deploying to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya fighting his way through the modern battlefield and the opportunities to lead combat forces, civilians, and news teams into some of the most dangerous war zones in the world.

I found John-Paul Jordan’s style of writing/speaking perfect for my style of reading. I would like to think I write in this form. He writes with a straightforward approach, and a lot of Irish slang, which adds a great flavor to the overall tone of the book. He speaks from a voice of deep experience and a good soldier can tell he knows what he is talking about and he explains it in a way that is clear and concise. I truly enjoyed this book on many levels.

More pain and misery via the PTSD train

Unfortunately, the Joys of War, (I hope you catch the pun there!) and the warrior’s path of destruction cover all Special Forces soldiers with glory. Rightfully so. But what I am hearing from John-Paul, about the after-effects strikes a similar tone to both UK and US soldiers returning from war and dealing with the horrors of what they have done on behalf of their country.

For all the pain and misery John-Paul, and most modern warriors, went through to qualify for selection and then deploy as a special forces soldier, at the end of his cycle, the end being – time to settle down and have kids, be a father, establish a home – you are forced to come to terms with all you have done. When that time comes, usually crashing down like a hard, southern Wales rain, you may find your mates, regiment, veteran organizations (US-VA, UK-MOD) not having your back as you expected them to!

You will have to follow his example and let the fog of opioids and painkillers clear, let the alcohol wear off, and help yourself and see it as another challenge, such as the selection phase or a long deployment, and simply knock it down with all your might. “If we deny your sickness, we deny our treatment. You can’t have one without the other.” I raise a pint of Guinness to John-Paul and say, well done Irish, Well done!

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This book review by Christopher (Moon) Mullins of Joys of War was first published by www.argunners.com. Republished with permission of author and editor. This book is available on Amazon.com (US), Amazon.co.uk (UK), and Pen and Sword.

Watch “Deep in the Jungle with the French Foreign Legion”. Observe helicasts into water, high-speed cast from boats into water, and more. Watch the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment of the French Foreign Legion train in the jungle of French Guiana.