Ghurkhas

I was deployed to RAF Fairford during Operation Iraqi Freedom with the B-52s. We often had protestors trying to get on base and try to damage the aircraft and because our USAF Security Forces were not trained in British law so the Ghurkhas came to step in and apprehend people. I would not want to get on the wrong side of these people.


A quote to tell you how hard core they are viewed to be comes from Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, "If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Ghurkha."

The Gurkas come from Nepal and India and impressed the British during the Ghurkha War (1814-1816). The British were not used to having such resistance as they experienced with the Ghurkhas and they offered the Ghurkhas to join them. The Ghurkhas did not fight with guns only their Khurkis, a curved knife in 8-190 inches in length. They could cut a man in half with a Khurkis.

One Ghurkha tactic I was interested to read was that during the World War II, the Ghurkhas would sneak into German foxholes (two men to a foxhole) at night. They would slit the throat of the first man and cut the bootlaces of the next. They would do this down the line of the foxholes.  When the second man woke up and saw his comrade dead, and went for his boots, he would know it could have been him too.

The process to become a Ghurkha is not easy one. They have to go through a rigorous selection process but it pays off as the  salary is more than the average Nepalese person.

The Ghurkhas have not had the best treatment in the United Kingdom despite their service. They were denied residency and had to go back to Nepal. This changed in April 2009 They also received a smaller pension than their British counterparts.

Do not make the mistake and call them gherkins as this is the British name for a pickle.