transport/transfer tubes

[Dave Hause]

If I were going to bet, I'd bet that this actually should have been
"transfer cases" which are sealable aluminum cases like very big coffins,
used to put a body (in a body bag) inside, sometimes with ice outside the
bag.  Air Force thing as that's the only way they (used to when I helped
unload them at Dover) transport bodies by air.
Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
Ft. Leonard Wood, MO
----- Original Message -----
From: "Benjamin Zimmer" <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>

A little digging finds that the euphemism is actually "transfer tubes", as
reported by the Toronto Star in Nov. 2003:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1102-08.htm