Ok then! I'll talk about my Great Grand Uncle's nice little time in Europe.
There was was a man named Abraham. He was a kind fellow, had a wife and 3 kids. He was born under a Sultanate, and died under a Republic's colonial provice.
My Uncle joined the French Army so that he could get some more money for his family. My family had a postion as merchants in Morocco, but when the French came they lost the right to work independintly. Everyone either had tos ign up under the French rule and fly the Proterctorate ensign show here:
Or you couldn't work in the harbors anymore. Most of my family decided to just join up with the French. The pay was... less than what is was however. Taxes and all.
So as I was saying, he joined the Army to get some more cash on hand. He had either the option of the regular army of the French Foreign Legion. He chose the prior because the FFL was basically a deathwish. He was folded into the newly created 1er Regiment de Spahis Morocains (The regiment that I reserved for the mod). For a couple of years he was just on standby, a regular Brigadier-chef in a regular cavalry regiment in the Army of Africa. Then, the Great War came around.
He served in the War for a long, long time. He was in the First Battle of the Marne, where his foot was blown to shreds almost. It was still intact, but immobile. The rest of his leg was fine, so they kept him on due to the need of more men.
The regiment then joined the Army of the Orient, and at the battle of Larissa they captured the standard of the 1st Evzones (A royalist Greek regiment). I think I have a picture lying around of him holding that standard in his hands after the battle.
So, by some act of God, he managed to survive being shot at, bombarded, gassed and dehorsed 3 times. He served for the entire war. The gassing did lead to complications, he died in the 30s not long after my Grandfather was born.