what an educashun!

[James Smith]

In 'The Sands of Iwo Jima', Sgt. Striker orders his
men to 'Lock and load' as the amphibious craft enter
the assault zone (there's a specific term, of course,
for the imaginary line that they were crossing as they
approached the beach, but I can't recall what it is.)
I don't know how authentic this is, but the USMC was
directly involved in the production of this post-WWII
movie.



--- jester at PANIX.COM wrote:
> >
> > In the new movie, U-571, a marine colonel uses the
> phrase "lock and load". I
> > vaguely remember a list discussion which put this
> in the Korean War (or
> > maybe Vietnam), but the archive search engine
> isn't being very forthcoming
> > with the results I want.
> >
> > Is this an anachronism?
>
> You haven't told us when the movie is set, but if
> it's WWII the
> phrase is probably not an anachronism. The
> Historical Dictionary
> of American Slang has an example of _load and lock_
> from WWII and
> several examples of _lock and load_ from the period
> immediately
> following the war, referring to it.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
> Oxford English Dictionary
>

=====
James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
SLC, UT                        |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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