Another early "whole nine yards"

[Stephen Goranson]

Quoting "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Another early "whole nine yards"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Newspaperarchive has added some issues of the European Stars and
> Stripes.
>
> Germany | Hesse | Hesse | Darmstadt | European Stars And Stripes |
> 1970-03-28 page 10.
> "They carry with them equipment and supplies enough to set up bomb
> storage tents, build latrines, lay out hospital facilities and an air
> strip - the whole nine yards." [quote is from MG John H. Bell,
> commanding general of the 3rd AF]
>
> Again, an Air Force connection.  It isn't obvious from the article that
> Bell had recently been assiged to Southeast Asia.
>
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Thanks for this. The Air Force interest, perhaps, could be explained by
the 1967
publication of a book with Air Force protagonists. And Montagnards
newly called
'yards.

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

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