full/whole xx yards (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

At another forum I frequent, a poster mentioned Joseph Stapp (in
connection with Baumgartner's recent balloon jump), and said that he was
responsible for Murphy's law:
http://www.heinleinsociety.org/thsnexus/viewtopic.php?p=11922#p11922

I suggested otherwise, summarizing some of the findings of the members
of this list.  The discussion went on into "full/whole nine yards", and
I summarized some of the "six yards"/Kentucky findings of late.  As part
of that, I asked "What was the vector [of the expression from rural
Kentucky] into the mil/aero communities?", and got this back: "Mighta
been some hotshot from West Virginia."

I think looking into Chuck Yeager and "whole/full xx yards" might be
useful.  His autobiography uses "whole nine yards" at least twice.  He
was from rural West Virginia, in a community only one county over from
the KY state line (and the KY communities from which "six yards" have
been cited are in the Eastern end of that state.)  He was in the
Muroc/Edwards AFB test community immediately after the War.  And he was
prominent enough that folksy things he may have said may have been
picked up by others and promulgated (I've heard it said that his "voice"
was used as the standard for the calm cockpit announcement that pilots
give during commercial flights).

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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