At the Lavéran Army Instruction Hospital (HIA), in the heart of a working-class district of the second largest city in France, AFP followed for several months these athletic-looking patients who rub shoulders with civilians in their rehabilitation. sick and injured like gunshot wounds in settling scores.
Most, in green tracksuits, belong to the Legion, a fighting force unique in the world made up mainly of foreigners, whose regiments are mainly based in the South of France.
Legionaries are often the first sent to the front among the thousands of French soldiers engaged abroad, whether in Mali, with the anti-jihadist operation Barkhane, or, between 2001 and 2014, to try to stabilize Afghanistan.
Franck *, a former minesweeper, is one of them.
He has just undergone an amputation of his leg ten years after that of his left hand, torn apart by the explosion of a shell in Afghanistan in 2011.
A hand and leg prosthesis belonging to Franck, a foreign soldier from the Legion injured in Afghanistan, at the Laveran HIA army instruction hospital in Marseille, September 13, 2021 Christophe SIMON AFP
Her foot could have been saved, but a bacteria that had been fought for a long time finally won and the amputation at the end of May became inevitable.
After his bluffing realistic arm prosthesis, the 55-year-old legionnaire with a sturdy physique must now get used to walking with an artificial leg.
"I'm alive"
Three and a half months after his operation, he nimbly jumps across a training ladder lying on the floor in the rehabilitation room.
"Everything is fine", welcomes this major who now works in the offices of the 1st foreign engineer regiment in the Gard.
He later conceded half-heartedly sometimes "clenching his teeth".
Franck, a soldier from the Foreign Legion wounded in Afghanistan, trains at the Laveran HIA army instruction hospital in Marseille, September 13, 2021 Christophe SIMON AFP
"We live almost normally and it gets worse. Me, I'm alive," smiles the non-commissioned officer, one of the very few to be decorated with the Legion of Honor.
"It is for my wife that it is the hardest to accept", confides this father of two children who entered a regiment at the age of 17 and a half.
"It's unbelievable, as soon as we put his prosthesis on him he immediately walked without any help or cane", notes the amazed prosthetist responsible for the final adjustments of his fiberglass and carbon leg, among the most sophisticated in the world. Marlet.
"We see a lot of miracles, soldiers who come back from very far and surprise us in their rehabilitation," confirms Geraldine, occupational therapist.
"Too fast"
The caregiver, who does not have military status, observes that "they often have to be slowed down".
"They want to go too fast, always push further, and do not listen to their pain. They want to be super-men, they are reminded that they are humans with a body that has suffered trauma," he adds. -she.
She is on the lookout for "grimaces" betraying the pains of these patients who little verbalize their emotions and call their doctor "my colonel".
The forty-something must also be a teacher to explain the benefits of exercises far away from the obstacle course.
Stacking cubes without dropping them, tightening taps, threading rings on an axis: these meticulous gestures are nevertheless essential to regain the flexibility of a shoulder and a rib cage bruised by the blasts of an explosive device, such as for this wounded soldier in Africa.
A hand and leg prosthesis belonging to Franck, a foreign soldier from the Legion injured in Afghanistan, at the Laveran HIA army instruction hospital in Marseille, September 13, 2021 Christophe SIMON AFP
"We breathe, we breathe. Pause", intimate him Geraldine who will meet more enthusiasm by suggesting to him to put on a virtual reality headset to burst balloons, the outstretched arm.
"The more difficult the exercise, the better", jokes this young father who is already hoping to go on a mission: "If I'm alive, it's not for nothing".
"Their body is their work tool, they often have only one desire, to find all their faculties to be projectable", underlines the physiotherapist, Justine.
"They trust us because we too know what it is to shoot with a weapon, what the weight of a piece of equipment represents and these hours spent standing, this extreme vigilance at all times", comments the young soldier. .
Often the will of the legionaries encourages other patients, such as this mason with a leg amputated following a construction accident who lifts weights on the same rehabilitation platform.
"Fraternity"
"The soldier is not an injured worker, nor a victim: he made a commitment by accepting the idea of being able to be wounded and of being able to lose his life in combat. It is important that he has at his bedside a doctor, a military nurse who understands him and with whom he creates a privileged link, "General Pascal Facon, commander of the South zone for the Army, told AFP.
The injury, the death, "we always think about it, we never talk about it", continues the one who commanded the Barkhane force between July 2019 and July 2020. In the Sahel, more than 50 soldiers of the French army died in fight since 2013.
Franck, a soldier from the Foreign Legion wounded in Afghanistan, is standing in an elevator of the Laveran HIA army training hospital in Marseille, September 13, 2021 Christophe SIMON AFP
Those who are injured must learn to "mourn for what they have been" and admit "their vulnerability", notes Frédéric, military psychiatrist at the hospital.
"There is for some the shame of the wounded soldier" and the fear of being reformed from the army, an institution which has given them a place in society and for which they are ready to give their lives, analyzes the doctor who accompanies soldiers who are victims of post-traumatic stress.
In a room where a handful of men with short cropped hair are exercising on weight machines and treadmills, a poster of the superhero movie Avengers reminds us: "You will not save the world alone".
"Brotherhood in arms is not an empty word, it is absolutely central, insists General Facon. One cannot imagine an enduring army, endowed with an important moral force, without the accompaniment of the wounded and their families until their reintegration. "
(The last names of staff and patients cannot be given)
© 2021 AFP