Another early "whole nine yards"

[Dave Wilton]

"MG" is the Army abbreviation. The USAF still uses "Maj. Gen."

Officer ranks and insignia can be found at:
http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/insignias/officers.html

Enlisted ranks and insignia at:
http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/insignias/enlisted.html

Pages are a little out of date as they still list the Coast Guard as being
part of the Dept. of Transportation instead of Homeland Security, but I
don't think the official abbreviations have changed.

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2006 5:38 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Another early "whole nine yards"

On the plus side, "PVT" is now all caps....

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Another early "whole nine yards"
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Is "MG" now the standard, instead of "MajGen,"? May the Lord have mercy on
our souls! It's another SOTA! ;-)

-Wilson

On 5/19/06, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC"
> Subject: Another early "whole nine yards"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
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>
> 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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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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