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

[Stephen Goranson]

Some apparently think machine gun belts are still worthy of consideration. Sam
Clemens wrote that "The Air Force origin is inescapable" after I wrote:

> > Perhaps recall that the earliest available uses are not related to machine
> > guns. Nor, really, especially related [to] operations of the Air Force.

Though it is true that the earliest two uses were dialogue of a
semi-fictionalized Air Force pilot character named Smash [Crandell, really
Chandler, now deceased], and that some later uses have Air Force tradents, it
remains that all early uses lack association with machine gun belts or any
other specifically Air Force operation. Jim Morris, the 1972 Special Forces vet
author, had read Doom Pussy. James Work's AF sources flew different planes; the
1970 source includes "...the whole smash..." in note 45, a gloss on our phrase,
suggesting another reader of the 1968 book. Basically, later references, so far
presented, add little helpful information. So we're back to the book and 1967
Vietnam, where an officer taught about nine tribes of Montagnards, called by
some yards. Montagnards are a subject of the book; photographs are included;
and the odd or silly, and to some offensive (perhaps source of resistance?),
name "yards" is used. This confluence of evidence may not yet constitute proof,
but is it curious that some might feature that it does not pass machine gun
belts?


Stephen Goranson