THE DARING GURKHAS
Tim Bowden, in his book One Crowded Hour, tells about an incident that happened in Borneo during the confrontation between Malaysia and Indonesia in 1964. A group of Gurkhas from Nepal were asked if they would be willing to jump from transport planes into combat against the Indonesians if the need arose. The Gurkhas had the right to refuse because they had never been trained as paratroopers. Now the Gurkhas usually agreed to anything, this time they provisionally rejected the plan. But the next day one of their Non-Commissioned Officers sought out the British officer who had made the request and said they had discussed the matter further and would jump but only under certain circumstances. The British office asked what those circumstances were. The Gurkhas told him they would jump if the land was marshy or reasonably soft with no rocky outcrops, because they were inexperienced in falling. The British officer considered this, and said the dropping area would probably…
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