How tough are Gurkhas?
A friend who is a veteran journalist passes along this tale: Story goes that during WWII, the British Indian Army planned to drop a company of the toughest Gurkhas behind Japanese lines to help stop the oncoming invaders. A British major explained the plan to the Gurkha sergeant major, saying: “We’ll drop you from 600 ...
A friend who is a veteran journalist passes along this tale:
A friend who is a veteran journalist passes along this tale:
Story goes that during WWII, the British Indian Army planned to drop a company of the toughest Gurkhas behind Japanese lines to help stop the oncoming invaders. A British major explained the plan to the Gurkha sergeant major, saying: “We’ll drop you from 600 feet.”
The sergeant major talked to his troops, then went back to the major: “Sah, the men say 600 feet too high. They want to be dropped lower.” The British major said: “All right, sergeant major, we’ll make it 500 feet.”
The sergeant major spoke to his troops again, and again went back to the major: “Sah, the men say 500 feet is still too high and want to be dropped lower.” The major said: “Sergeant major, we could go down to 400 feet to drop you but that wouldn’t leave enough time for the parachutes to open.”
Sergeant major: “Ooohhh, paraaaachutes???”
By the way, the Gurkhas were the most decent people I encountered operating checkpoints in Iraq — professional but friendly.
florriebassingbourn/flickr
Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1
More from Foreign Policy

America Is a Heartbeat Away From a War It Could Lose
Global war is neither a theoretical contingency nor the fever dream of hawks and militarists.

The West’s Incoherent Critique of Israel’s Gaza Strategy
The reality of fighting Hamas in Gaza makes this war terrible one way or another.

Biden Owns the Israel-Palestine Conflict Now
In tying Washington to Israel’s war in Gaza, the U.S. president now shares responsibility for the broader conflict’s fate.

Taiwan’s Room to Maneuver Shrinks as Biden and Xi Meet
As the latest crisis in the straits wraps up, Taipei is on the back foot.