"the whole nine yards"; an army officer writes

[Gerald Cohen]

    Another pleasant development from the Jan. 2 WSJ article about
Barry Popik is that he was contacted by an army officer who has long
been interested in "the whole nine yards." Barry forwarded his e-mail
to me, and with permission granted from both parties, I now share the
message with ADS-L.  Its main importance is that it places "the whole
nine yards" back into a an Air Force context, even though there are
still no attestations from World War II.

--Gerald Cohen
>Fort Bliss, Texas
>
                                                                18 January 2001
>Mr. Barry Popik
>
>Re:  The Whole Nine Yards
>
>Barry,
>
>              I read your feature in the 2 January 2001 issue of The
>Wall Street Journal and was immediately attracted to you quest for
>the origin of 'The Whole Nine Yards."
>
>              I am a soldier the United States Army Sergeants Major
>Academy at Fort Bliss, Texas and this has also become a quest for
>several of my fellow senior NCOs.  Internet searches include the
>size of cement mixers that you mentioned, stationary ones, used in
>the late 1940s, not trucks, the length of a bolt of cloth, and the
>distance between masts on sailing ships.
>
>              One of my fellow soldiers said he read about the term
>in a book on WWII, Guadalcanal, maybe.  Since the printing of your
>feature I have researched the Battle of the Aleutian Islands, great
>reading about brave soldiers, but no cigar.  No Whole Nine Yards,
>either.
>
>              On the down side, my father was an armorer for a P-51
>Mustang unit during WWII and I never heard him use the term.  But
>then he never talked shop about his army experience, only upbeat
>stories relating to off duty activities.  My father died in 1985 and
>I don't know if any of his comrades are still living.  I'll have to
>ask my mother.
>
>              Now, here is where I can help you, and it fits into the
>small world department.  In the fall of 1964 I was a freshmen at the
>University of Missouri and sitting in an ROTC classroom, the
>building was (still is) Crowder Hall, the instructor was a Captain
>Samples, he got a promotion to major a few weeks later and the
>Professor of Military Science a colonel( full bird) named Carlisle,
>or Carwile, memory is a little foggy on that.  We had a briefing by
>a young air force officer (pilot).  Here again, I don't remember if
>he was a 2nd lieutenant, 1st lieutenant, or captain, and I don't
>remember if he was on his way to Vietnam or had just returned, but
>he was a graduate of Missouri University (MU).  A 2lt would have
>made him a 1992 or 1993 graduate while a captain would roll him all
>the way back to around 1960.  I wasn't too focused on the military
>Š..yet. For me Vietnam was still four years away.
>
>              During his briefing this young officer used the term,
>'The Whole Nine Yards,' not just once but repeatedly.  At the time I
>thought he was referring to University of Missouri football.
>
>             To get back to business, that was in the fall of 1964.
>The young pilot had to have picked up the term somewhere and I would
>think Air Force flight gunnery school, which would move the
>appearance of the term back from the date of 1966 you mentioned in
>your feature.
>
>             I don't know Professor Gerald Cohen but I'll probable
>try to contact Him.  I graduated from MU in June 1968 and went of
>active duty for what was to be a two-year obligation.  That was
>almost 33 years ago. I think my two-year obligation is up two years
>from June of this year.
>
>              Good Luck.
>
>Thomas L. McRoberts
>Sergeant Major
>United States Army
>
>
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