“Who is like God? »(1), the book of the army corps general Pierre Gillet, lists in an exhaustive way the qualities of a chief and draws up the Christian virtues necessary to the command. What could pass for an insider's book, a new TTA(1), becomes under the delicate and virile pen of Pierre Gillet, former corps commander of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment, general commanding the rapid reaction corps - France , a poetry of being, imbued with spirituality, passion, perseverance and dignity.
In the middle of a dragging Saturday morning, the telephone rang, an already well-known voice was heard speaking impeccable French with a delicious Germanic accent: "Mon lieutenant, do you think he's possible to invite a friend, François Lagarde, to the festivities? I replied that it was no problem and my interlocutor hung up the phone in a flash as he was used to. I had met Ernst Jünger for the first time three weeks before. He called me for some time to come and with a certain deference, my lieutenant. I had realized a dream when I met him in Wilflingen, he had received me with a kindness that again had almost upset me and he had assured me of his presence for the show that we were preparing at the rear base for the return of the troops from Operation Daguet in Iraq in Nîmes. But I did not know François Lagarde, of whom the German writer spoke to me, and I had felt from the sound of his voice that it was a wish that was close to his heart. He told me that he lived in Montpellier and that he would come by his own means… Shortly after, I received another call, this time from François Lagarde who came on the phone and told me he was a photographer.
Francois Lagarde had a soft voice and I never heard him raise it. At all times, in all circumstances, he remained master of himself and it did not seem like an effort. He had that soft, questioning voice whose questioning served as much to discover as to confirm. François had a real gentleness, which was not feigned, but he was also inhabited by a certain ferocity that I attributed to the double emancipation he was convinced he had achieved: emancipation from his environment and emancipation from all forms of limits like the people who turned twenty in 1968. François was Protestant to the very core of himself. He refused this condition and therefore boasted of having gotten rid of it, of no longer carrying the weight of his two pastor parents, but he continued to struggle, and in his heart of hearts, I always thought he was aware, even if he acted like someone who had won the bet, that the fight would still be with him. So he got rid of his Protestantism by dressing it up with a Fellini side, in search of the slightest bit of pure life, of Dionysian life, of an orgy of life… It was his agony. He never shied away from it. There is something terrible in seeing a man retain only gray, dull colors from childhood… No childish joy comes to counterbalance this feeling. If everything is a question of perspective in life, joy should always be the perspective of childhood, because the joy felt fully in a pure soul will always seem stronger than the vagaries of adult life. Time often accustoms us to our own hypocrisy. And we take that habit for a win. François Lagarde exalted an unfailing complexity. It was hard not to like him. He was impulsive, always curious and adorned with a genuinely Catholic joy. He wouldn't have liked me to give him a Catholic quality, but he would have been flattered, without admitting it of course.
Continue reading “François Lagarde, photographer of Ernst Jünger”
Show “But times always come back…” — 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (1991) by Emmanuel Di Rossetti on Vimeo .
On August 31, 1991, the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment celebrated its 150th anniversary during an exceptional cinéscénie, the battle of El Moungar and its return from Operation Daguet, the first Gulf War. 30,000 spectators from Nîmes will attend this event which began during the day with the legionnaires dressed in authentic costumes placed in the conditions and sets of different eras, and which will continue late into the night with the show itself performed by François Gamard, Jérôme le Paulmier and Richard Bohringer 1 in front of the Costières stadium (180 meters from the stage!).
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A friend contacted me to ask me for the exact quote from Ernst Jünger (taken from Orages d'acier ) that we liked to repeat among officers of the 2nd foreign infantry regiment. I write it on this blog as I remember that General Antoine Lecerf liked this quote and it fits him like a glove:
It has been given to us to live in the invisible rays of great feelings, this will remain our priceless privilege.
Antoine is no more. He left on Good Friday. April 22, 2011. He is in the house of the Father. Antoine is Antoine Lecerf . Lieutenant General Antoine Lecerf. A master of war. A brilliant leader of men. One of the most extraordinary men I have known.
When you first met Antoine Lecerf, there was this frank and firm handshake, but there was immediately something else; something about charisma. Antoine Lecerf is said to have charmed snakes. He shook your hand and immediately there was a spell. He wanted to know right away if you were with him, if you were ready, if you supported his project. Which project ? There was a new one every five minutes. And he didn't drop any. He thought fast, but his friendship lasted a long time. He wanted to know if you were with him and he had an infallible way of knowing it: he shook your hand, he kept it, his face approached yours, he came to meet you, he wanted to know. He shook your hand, he kept it, his face approached yours and he wrinkled his left eyelid a little as if to improve his visual acuity, as if to be sure of what he was going to see, of what you were going to reveal to him. His squinted eye, that penetrating gaze was looking for something. He was looking for that little flame. He wanted to know if you too were animated. Antoine Lecerf only consorted with lively people. Nothing interested him more than to know if you were too, or even to a lesser degree if you could be (which was enough to satisfy him, because the potential had a special value for him). Antoine Lecerf chose you. And nothing was less the result of chance.
Continue reading “And by Saint Antoine… (Death of General Antoine Lecerf)”