{"id":105667,"date":"2026-11-03T03:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=105667"},"modified":"2026-11-02T10:26:46","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T15:26:46","slug":"around-2020-the-fitness-industry-discovered-walking-about-with-a-heavy-pack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/around-2020-the-fitness-industry-discovered-walking-about-with-a-heavy-pack\/","title":{"rendered":"“Around 2020 the fitness industry discovered walking about with a heavy pack and called it rucking”"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the social media site formerly known as Twitter<\/em>, Sama Hoole<\/a> discusses the British advance from San Carlos to Port Stanley during the Falkland Islands campaign:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On 25 May 1982 an Exocet sank the ship carrying Britain’s heavy-lift helicopters, so the Royal Marines and the Paras carried the war across the Falklands on their backs.<\/p>\n

The Atlantic Conveyor<\/em> went down with three of the four big Chinooks, six Wessex and a Lynx. Twelve men died with her. The plan to fly the troops forward sank with them.<\/p>\n

From the beachhead at San Carlos to Stanley was around 56 miles. Nothing on the Falklands runs in a straight line.<\/p>\n

Peat bog that swallowed a boot to the shin. Tussock grass in knee-high clumps. Rivers of loose rock. Rain two days in three, sleet, and a wind straight off the Southern Ocean.<\/p>\n

45 Commando went first. Twelve miles to New House, eight more to Douglas, then on to Teal Inlet. 3 Para marched for 24 hours in two columns. The Marines called it yomping. The Paras called it tabbing.<\/p>\n

Each man carried 80 pounds and often far more. Rifle, ammunition, mortar rounds, radio batteries, sleeping bag, rations, a shovel. About the weight of a grown Labrador, carried for days, then dug in under at night.<\/p>\n

At the end of it there was no rest. They went up Two Sisters, Mount Longdon and Mount Harriet, and fought at night, up rock, some of it with bayonets.<\/p>\n

The photograph of the yomp, a Marine with a Union flag tied to his radio aerial, became the picture of the whole war.<\/p>\n

Those men are in their sixties and seventies now.<\/p>\n

Around 2020 the fitness industry discovered walking about with a heavy pack and called it rucking.<\/p>\n

The Marines called it getting to the fight.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Sama Hoole discusses the British advance from San Carlos to Port Stanley during the Falkland Islands campaign: On 25 May 1982 an Exocet sank the ship carrying Britain’s heavy-lift helicopters, so the Royal Marines and the Paras carried the war across the Falklands on their backs. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[465,4,7,5],"tags":[930,492,31,493,1103,1128,206],"class_list":["post-105667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americas","category-britain","category-history","category-military","tag-1980s","tag-argentina","tag-army","tag-falklandislands","tag-infantry","tag-royalmarines","tag-severeweather"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-ruj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105669,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105667\/revisions\/105669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}