What nation are you from?

In response to KHR's fine submission that featured Gurkhas not 
needing retrorockets....

========================
Ed: Edited] (From article <6907@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> in 
soc.culture.indian:) 

GURKHAS - THE MARTIAL RACE

Now that an accord has been signed between the GNLF of Subhash ( not 
the go back to India one :-)) Ghising and the Government of India, it 
might be appropriate to recollect an interesting anecdote regarding 
these doughty warriors. 

In World war II, an English reporter who had heard so much about the 
bravery and elan of the Gurkhas visited a camp just in front of the 
enemy lines (Germans). During the course of his reporting, he had 
occasion to observe a mission being conducted. 

The mission was to airdrop a bunch of soldiers behind enemy lines to 
conduct some relatively light action. He watched the commander of the 
Gurkhas (a British soldier) pitch the mission and then ask for 
volunteers. To his surprise, only about half the Gurkhas volunteered 
and were sent off. 

Throughly disillusioned with the legends of Gurkha bravery, the 
reporter went back home. After the war, he happened to run into a 
Gurkha who had been there, and asked him why half the troops had 
failed to volunteer. It turned out that none of the squad, both those 
who volunteered and those who did not, were aware that they would get 
a parachute for the drop. Hence the low turnout.