"Whole nine yards" : some negative evidence [addendum]

[Wilson Gray]

On Oct 31, 2004, at 11:51 PM, Dave Hause wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Hause <dwhause at JOBE.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Whole nine yards" : some negative evidence
> [addendum]
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> I second Wilson's note on the logistics from the perspective of the
> assistant gunner on a machine gun team from which the ammo bearer had
> deserted on pre-deployment leave

Wish I'd had that kind of smarts! ;-)

-Wilson

> , leaving me with two 200-round cans of 7.62
> mm ammo in addition to the other impedimenta.  I have three .50 cal
> ammo
> cans, two marked as containing 100 rounds of blanks, the third 85
> rounds of
> linked 1/5 tracer;  they are about 6 x 8 x 10" and probably weigh 30-40
> pounds filled with smaller ammunition (less lead.)  Of course, the .50
> cal.
> machine gun wasn't usually carried around by the infantry when I was
> doing
> that, so a team could have been significantly larger than the three on
> a
> medium machine gun (as I remember, the gun weighs around 110 pounds
> and the
> tripod is probably another 50.)
> Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
> Ft. Leonard Wood, MO
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wilson Gray" <wilson.gray at RCN.COM>
> ...
> Then there's the problem of logistics. I was the ammunition-bearer for
> a machine-gun crew. As such, I can testify that it would take Superman
> to carry with one hand a single ammo cannister containing nine yards of
> steel belting filled with many pounds of lead-and-brass cartridges,
> each in turn filled with gunpowder. An ammo-bearer is expected to carry
> at least two cans of ammo for the machine gun. And that would be in
> addition to the 300 rounds of unbelted rifle ammo for his own use, his
> full field pack, grenades, etc. It just couldn't be done, if there was
> a standard length for an ammo belt of nine yards.
>