Ghurkas are by no means poor shots. At least, those who go for their shooting team are not. A while ago a Ghurka team was practicing on the same range as my reserve regiment, for the regular version of the shooting competition we were practicing for. As it was the one range, they had the right and us the left, both doing the same shoot, the shoot starting with a 100m sprint. When we did this the Gurkhas were on the fireing point readying their rifles when I still had another 25m's to run - and their shooting was impecable. I can only assume it being due to their living their early lives at high altitude and living a physically active life, but they are exceptional soldiers.

Well you know better Yimmy--my error-- but that is a stereotype about Gurkhas.

that wasn't my concept of evolution---it was a scientific report on Yahoo, you may search it if u like (last 30 days).

GOP, as an ex-grunt. I would be a lot more worried about facing Ghurkas then Rangers or even SEALS. Neither group carries a 12 inch long blade designed to be able to behead or split the skull of a human being. Once you've actually been in and served a bit, you will quickly learn that the people to really worry about are those with a short, skinny physique who can walk all night carrying 2x their weight and never make a sound. The big rambo looking types are nice to carry the machine gun and extra rounds, but the little skinny guy will scare me more every time.

From my limited experience, the three buddies of mine that went USMC infantry tended to come back on leave looking like they were sleeping in the weightroom and feeding on 45lb.lb. plates. I had a friend that went airborne infantry in the late 1990s and he was definitely lean and mean. Hard as hell, but whipcord thin. Does this limited sample follow your experience as a (light?)infantryman? Curious Cato

that wasn't my concept of evolution---it was a scientific report on Yahoo, you may search it if u like (last 30 days). May I? How uncommonly kind of you? The cause and effect are scientifically plausible, but the mechanism, as you described it, is not correct. Basically (going slightly off topic) where snakes are present, those in the population with better eyesight are less likely to get bitten, and as such are more likely to procreate. With no snakes, those with better eyesight have no advantage on those lines and the population retains the original mix of better and worse eyesight. Yes, i am Mr. flamingpicky.

My 2 cents - Yeah, from my experience, light infantry doesn't really tend to bulk up. Too much time in the field, more focus on cardio work outs, and being deployed or long training cycles you tend to burn more calories than you replace. Particularly if you are a big guy.. Heck, I was a little guy and maxed out at just over 140lbs and came off a trip to the desert weighing around 117. Marines, my guess, is they spend a fair amount of time on ship, which means weight rooms and not too many 8 mile runs. Beyond that, maybe it's a cultural difference in the services. We would almost never do PT that involved going to the gym. Maybe the Marines do things differently. Those guys I knew in the Army that were into weights, pretty much had to do it on their own time and generally would lose a lot of their gains if we deployed or enetered a big training cycle.

Thanks, bro, That was the impression I got. I was just wondering if my observations may have been skewed as the three guys that enlisted in the Corps after high school were football teammates of mine , and the paratrooper was a "futabol" player. IIRC the Jarheads spent a-lot of time on the float in the weightroom, and the cardio they got was running around the deck of the ship. Cato

There is a little irony to the whole thing, the big muscle bound weightlifting types in the Army... tend to be the REMFs / Pouges / finance clerks / etc.. Why run when you can ride and why go outside when there is air conditioning and a roof on the gym ;-)

What Joe6pack said. I was probably around 170 lbs at 5'11". PT was calisthenics, running, and marching. If you were the incredible bulk (we had a few) you got that way on your own.