Since 1831, the French Foreign Legion has been a renowned fighting force. It gives men a new lease on life-and a chance to test their physical and mental limits. In 1999, that"s just what American Jaime Salazar was looking for. The son of underpaid Mexican immigrants, Jaime earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue. But at twenty-three, he was disillusioned with the corporate fast track. So he became an outcast American in a hard-bitten group of recruits-men on the run from their pasts, men without hope: He joined the French Foreign Legion. From the Legion"s notoriously brutal training to Salazar"s fierce competitiveness, ultimate disillusionment and dramatic desertion, Legion of the Lost is a compelling, firsthand account of today"s French Foreign Legion that will dispel myths while adding to the legend of the finest trained army of warriors the world has ever known.