Just saw this thread.
I signed up for 5 years of foreign legion, in 1982. Well, actually, my father had to sign for me, as I wasn't 18 at the time. As you all know, the Legion has its own ways to deal with things like that, so I was suddenly 19, half an hour after entering the recruiting post. New name and everything.
Anyway, I bouht into the whole "we'll find you a cozy place" bullshit from the recruiter. Found myself in the 2nd REP (airborne unit of the french foreign Legion) and subsequently, was deployed almost 4.5 years out of my 6 years total (signed up for 1 more). I have my dreams, like everybody else. They came AFTER I got out. Never in between deployments. I'm out since almost a quarter of a century now, and the memories fade. What drove me nuts on deployment was not the combat. It was the waiting. The endless bullshit the sergeants came up with to keep you occupied. Digging holes for a day, just to fill them back up the next. Making us build roads in a country where almost nobody had a car. Crap like that. The weird thing is I miss it, every day. It's funny to read Pilgrim's post about how he dreams about getting reenlisted at his age, becasue that's pretty much the same kinda thing that happens to me, every once in a while. That's the good kind of dream. I'd take that every night if I had a choice.
Does it hppen to me only, or do you sometimeswake up from one of these dreams and you still have that "combat smell" stuck in your nose?