The Legacy of Camerone
Let us remember April 30, 1863: the Battle of Camerone!
By General Olié (1963).
"The Testament of Camerone" (excerpts), speech delivered at the graduation ceremony of the "Camerone Centenary" class at Saint-Cyr-Coëtquidan in 1963.
"The legacy of Camerone, however, lies not only in the collective actions highlighted by an analogy with the famous battle, but also and above all in the slow, conscious or unconscious, instilling of the trained legionnaire in the cult of Honor under the light of Camerone."
Legionary honor, like faith, draws its sources from, on the one hand, the strict discipline that molds the man, harshly dictating the boundaries of good and evil, and, on the other hand, from adherence—voluntary, certainly, by virtue of the contract, but which imperceptibly becomes an adherence of the heart and the whole being to the morality of duty.
In short, danger, a victory over fear—just as work is a victory over laziness—is a homeland. Far beyond the land of his childhood, the legionnaire finds a reason to live, to work, to fight, and to die in the community of which he has become a living part: Legio Patria Nostra.
How can we be surprised that this solidarity engenders an unparalleled strength, a world apart, a "world of lords," as some have called it, whose members are aware of embodying incomparable values, of being destined for an exceptional, transcendent fate, utterly unlike the mediocrity of a world enslaved by its petty cowardice for its own well-being?
The Legion fills the heart and mind because it offers those who had lost all hope in life a new ideal. This ideal stems both from self-esteem and from a kind of religion with its own worship and rituals within an unrivaled unit where, far from the beaten path, the legionnaire can live intensely and flourish in response to the call of arms and the allure of adventure.
Legionary honor, like faith, draws its sources from, on the one hand, the strict discipline that molds the man, harshly dictating the boundaries of good and evil, and, on the other hand, from adherence—voluntary, certainly, by virtue of the contract, but which imperceptibly becomes an adherence of the heart and the whole being to the morality of duty.
In short, danger, a victory over fear—just as work is a victory over laziness—is a homeland. Far beyond the land of his childhood, the legionnaire finds a reason to live, to work, to fight, and to die in the community of which he has become a living part: Legio Patria Nostra.
How can we be surprised that this solidarity engenders an unparalleled strength, a world apart, a "world of lords," as some have called it, whose members are aware of embodying incomparable values, of being destined for an exceptional, transcendent fate, utterly unlike the mediocrity of a world enslaved by its petty cowardice for its own well-being?
The Legion fills the heart and mind because it offers those who had lost all hope in life a new ideal. This ideal stems both from self-esteem and from a kind of religion with its own worship and rituals within an unrivaled unit where, far from the beaten path, the legionnaire can live intensely and flourish in response to the call of arms and the allure of adventure.