what an educashun!

[Mike Salovesh]

Bruce Dykes 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?

In my direct experience, the phrases "lock and load" and "load and lock"
were parts of standard commands on U.S. Army rifle ranges during the
Korean War.  I believe that the commands were in use during World War
II, and may have been associated with the adoption of the M-1 (Garand)
rifle as the standard infantry weapon. The phrases could have been have
been used even earlier, perhaps as part of training soldiers to use the
Browning
Automatic Rifle (BAR).

One version of the full command was "One round of ball ammunition, lock
and load". That command told whoever was about to fire at targets on the
range to set the safety on their weapons, then load one round of live
ammunition.  That was the pre-firing preparation for a special
exercise.

When given the order to fire, those on the firing line would aim and
fire the single round in their weapons, then reload with a full clip or
magazine of ammunition.  They would then continue firing until their
ammo was exhausted.  After a practice session or two, this firing
exercise became a timed exercise: shooters were given X seconds to fire
the single round, reload, and fire the full clip or magazine.  They were
then scored according to where (or if) their rounds hit the targets.

The difference between "lock and load" and "load and lock" was
weapon-specific. The safety lock on some weapons could be set before
loading; on others, the safety could only be set if there was a round in
the chamber.

QUIZ for veterans of the "brown shoe army":  Which individual weapons
required the sequence "lock and load", and which ones went with "load
and lock"?

("Brown shoe army" came into use in the mid-1950's, when the U.S. Army
began issuing black uniform dress shoes in place of the brown ones
previously used. I haven't heard the phrase in many years.)

Since I've moved on to uniforms, here's more from Bruce Dykes:
>
> Another phrase of note was "boondockers and dungarees", referring to the
> blue cotton shirts and bell bottoms worn as everyday uniforms in the Navy.
> Never having been in the Navy, I have no idea whether this was current or
> retro, accurate or anachronistic. Barry brought us 'boondocks' from the Army
> Times in 1943, so chronologically it's entirely possible...

"Dungarees" would have been the common term in the Navy during WW II.  I
was too young for that war, so I can't testify on whether the work
uniforms might have been informally called "boondockers".  I didn't hear
"boondockers" applied to navy uniforms during the Korean War.  (Sailors
did call their work uniforms "fatigues" from time to time. That would
have been a loanword borrowed from people in the Marine Corps or in the
Army.)

The word "boondocks" was in use during the Korean war, but it didn't
refer to anyone's uniform. It referred to isolated, rural areas (much
like Australian "outback").  "Boondocks", with that meaning, was
originally used in the Philippines (and may have come from Tagalog).  It
could have entered U.S. English as early as the Spanish-American War or
the subsequent U.S. involvement in "pacifying" rebel outbreaks at the
start of U.S. occupation of the Philippines.

I know that memory can play strange tricks, which is why dictionaries
seek written confirmation for dates of first usage.  Still, for what
it's worth, I think I remember that when I heard the word "boondocks"
during the Korean War it was very likely that the speaker had been in
the armed forces before 1950. (The Korean War began in June, 1950.) I
concluded, rightly or wrongly, that those who used "boondocks" had
served in the Philippines, probably during or immediately after WW II,
or at least had been influenced by veterans of such service.

-- mike salovesh     <salovesh at niu.edu>    PEACE !!!