jointness, getting joint

[Dave Wilton]

>Interesting new Pentagon-speak here. Or not so new: Rumsfeld
>was rambling on about "jointness" and "getting joint" back
>in 2001:

The military jargon sense goes back to at least 1984. The usage really
gained steam with the passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, which
overhauled the military bureaucracy, forcing the services to work more
closely. The adjective "joint," referring to interservice cooperation, has
been in use since at least WWII and the formation of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff.

>From Washington Post, 23 May 1984. p. A3:

"'It's clear that if we go to war, we're going to go to war joint,' Wickham
said, adding that he and Gabriel 'are trying to institutionalize a process
that will lead to better jointness.'" [Wickham was Army chief of staff,
Gabriel Air Force chief of staff at the time.]

The same article contains an early use of "purple suit", another military
slang term related to jointness:

"'There are others out there in the Army and in the Air Force who do take a
purple-suit approach,' an Army general added, referring to officers who are
not loyal only to Army 'green-suiters' or Air Force 'blue-suiters.'"

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net

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