Editing Sapper (section)

====Pioneers====
{{main|Foreign Legion Pioneers (Pionniers)}}
Since the 18th century, every [[grenadier]] battalion in the [[French Army]] had a small unit of [[Pioneer (military)|pioneers]], sometimes called sappers-pioneers (''sapeurs-pionniers''). They had the mission to advance under enemy fire in order to destroy the obstacles drawn by the enemy and to clear the way for the rest of the [[infantry]]. The danger of such missions resulted in pioneers having short life expectancies. Because of this, the army allowed them certain privileges such as the authorization to wear [[beards]]. In addition to their beards and axes, they traditionally wear leather aprons and gloves.

The pioneers units disappeared during the mid-20th c. century, their last appearance being the short-lived Pioneers Regiments of 1939–1944, a military public works service using the older draftees in the army. Only the Foreign Legion kept using a pioneer unit, mainly for representation duty. The [[Foreign Legion Pioneers (Pionniers)|current pioneer unit]] of the Legion reintroduced the symbols of the [[Napoleonic era|Napoleonic]] pioneers: the beard, the axe, the leather apron, the crossed-axes insignia, and the leather gloves. If the parades of the Legion are opened by this unit, it is to commemorate the traditional role of the pioneers "opening the way" for the troops. The pioneer unit is made up for parades of selected men taken in both the Infantry and the Engineers regiments of the Legion.