Military industrial complex lays Pommy lexicographer low

[Mark A. Mandel]

Paul Kunino Lynch <kunino at VALISE.COM> writes to provide the lyrics of the
US Air Force Hymn (as I learned to call it; "anthem" ~= "hymn").

As I learned (parts of) it from my dad's singing, it was not "Nothing'll
stop the US Air Force!", as you have it, no doubt correctly, but "Nothing
can stop the Army Air Corps!"

"-'ll" to "can" is a likely folk process change, but since my dad was in
the (ground) Army in WWII, his name for the air arm of the US armed forces
(to use a neutral term) is almost certainly from the original form of the
song. If anyone needs further evidence, "Corps" rhymes with
"roar/soar/more", and my dad's way scans better than this newfangled
version.

The following quotation, from
http://www.acmedepot.com/keepemflying/aac.shtml , purports to clear up the
issue. Apparently the service was
 1. formed within the Army as "the U.S. Army Air Corps" prior to WWII,
 2. renamed "the U.S. Army Air Forces" in 1941, and
 3. reconstituted as a separate armed service, the "U.S. Air Force", in
1947.

>>>>>
Strictly speaking, the U.S. Army Air Corps was re-designated as the U.S.
Army Air Forces in 1941. For perhaps traditional reasons or perhaps to
distance it from the separated Air Force service stemming from 1947, the
U.S. Army Air Forces of WWII are still often and affectionately referred to
as the Army Air Corps.

During World War II the U.S. Army Air Forces was organized into several
separate numbered Air Forces each assigned to a theater of operation. The
First through Fourth Air Forces were located in the continental USA, while
the Fifth through Fifteenth and the Twentieth were based around the world.
<<<<<

   Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
          Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Senior Linguist
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com
                     (speaking for myself)