Great pics.
They have been indeed. I first ran into a section from the British Army of the Rhine in the 1960s along the Iron Curtain across from the West German 5-kilometer security zone. They were coming back from the other side.
More recently, in Afghanistan in particular, they have employed as contract security personnel at a US government communications relay station in the area in which Northern Alliance troops under Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum were operating. And they have maintained their centuries-old traditions.
In an armed conflict where I needed an ally, if I had to choose between one Nepalese Gurkha foot soldier armed only with a Kukri knife, or five people picked out of the phone book who each had a gun, I think I would pick the Gurkha.--John Ross, author of Unintended Consequences