Salazar, Jaime

PERSONAL: Born in Lafayette, IN. Education: Purdue University, B.S., 1997; attended Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden).

ADDRESSES: Home—Houston, TX. Agent—Andrew Lownie, The Andrew Lownie Literary Agency, Ltd., 17 Sutherland St., London SW1V 4JU, England. E-mail—JSalazar@LegionoftheLost.com.

CAREER: Works in gas and oil industry; Siemens, Chicago, IL, former executive sales trainee. Military service: Served in French Foreign Legion.

WRITINGS:

Legion of the Lost: The True Experience of an American in the French Foreign Legion, Berkley Caliber Books (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: As a restless young man, Jaime Salazar followed a peripatetic life that led him to Sweden, where he enrolled—and was kicked out of—a Rotary exchange program. He then studied mechanical engineering at Purdue University before heading back to Sweden to attend the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. When he again returned to the United States, he was briefly a sales executive trainee in Chicago. However, his restless nature soon compelled him to travel once more and join the French Foreign Legion. Legion of the Lost: The True Experience of an American in the French Foreign Legion recounts the story of his time in the famed ranks, where he was known as Juan Sanchez because each new member of the legion is given a new name based upon the first letters of their actual name. Houston Chronicle Online reviewer Fritz Lanham described the book as "part celebration, part indictment of a brutal, anachronistic institution." In a review for Booklist, Roland Green called Salazar's effort "a useful sketch of the contemporary legion and the mercenary scene in general."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 2005, Roland Green, review of Legion of the Lost: The True Experience of an American in the French Foreign Legion, p. 1975.

ONLINE

Houston Chronicle Online, http://www.chron.com/ (November 30, 2005), Fritz Lanham, "Jaime Salazar."

Legion of the Lost Web site, http://www.legionofthelost.com/ (November 30, 2005), "Jaime Salazar."