CYA

[Wilson Gray]

I saw "CYA" in print in a story that used Army initial-jargon as
section headings. This story appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy &
Science-Fiction in 1979. The site below claims a Vietnam-era origin,
without specifying a date, but it implies that the term would have been
in use in 1973:

<http://www.jwalsh.net/projects/research/military_jargon/>

-Wilson Gray

On Sep 12, 2004, at 3:32 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      CYA
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> For those who haven't been following the news lately, 60 Minutes did a
> story
> last Wednesday about President Bush's National Guard service, based on
> some
> memos which they just obtained copies of.  There has been a huge
> firestorm
> about the memos, with many bloggers building a case that they are
> forgeries,
> and with CBS stating that they will "stand by" their story, but without
> offering much in the way of validation.
>
> One point that has been raised is that one of the memos, from 1973,
> uses the
> acronym "CYA" (Cover Your Ass).  Whether or not a LtCol in the Air
> National
> Guard would use this expression as the subject of a memo for record is
> one
> thing; another is whether the acronym was in use at all at that time.
> I've
> known it for years, but not that far back (I was 11 years old then . .
> .).
> I couldn't find it easily in any databases I have access to.
>
> So, can anyone on this list establish its use back then?  I would be
> surprised if the answer is "no", but I think the question is worth
> asking.
>
> Thanks
> Bill Mullins
>