The Gurkha are Nepalese soldiers. In the last few centuries they have served, at various times, in the the British, Indian, and Nepalese military. Gurkha have a legacy of bravery and incredible exploits, both as units and as individuals. This anecdote is a good example of why:
When President Sukarno of Indonesia announced, in 1963, that he was going to “crush Malaysia,” British forces were sent in to oppose his attack – which meant that the Gurkhas from Nepal were called in to help.
Tim Bowden, in his book, One Crowded Hour, wrote about how the Gurkhas were asked if they would be willing to jump from transport planes into combat. Surprisingly, the Gurkhas, who usually agreed to anything, provisionally rejected the plan. A cameraman, Neil Davis, told Bowden an incident that went something like this:
The next day, one of the Gurkha officers sought out the British officer who made the request. “We have talked it over, and are prepared to jump under certain conditions.”
“What are they?”
“We’ll jump if the land is marshy or reasonably soft with no rocky outcrops.” The British officer said that the dropping area would almost certainly be over jungle, and there would not be rocky outcrops.
“Anything else?”
“Yes,” said the Gurkha. “We want the plane to fly as slowly as possible and no more than one hundred feet high.”
The British officer told them the planes always fly as slow as possible when dropping troops, but to jump from one hundred feet was impossible, because the parachutes wouldn’t open in time.
“Oh,” the Gurkha responded. “That’s all right then. We’ll jump … you didn’t tell us we would have parachutes.”
