[Ads-l] Military proverb: "...to whom it may concern..."

[Jonathan Lighter]

1918 Raymond G. Carroll, “New Honor Won by U.S. Fighters,” _The Sun_ [NYC]
(Oct. 17)  5:  Lieut. Charles C. McLeod, Lynchburg, W. Va.,…replied: "I’m
not afraid of the shell having my number on it. It is [sic] the one
addressed 'To whom it may concern' that worries me."

1943 Lamar Trotti & Jerome Cady _Guadalcanal Diary_ (film):  I don't mind
the one with my name on it. It's the one that says, "To whom it may
concern" that I don't like.

1966 _Sunday Advocate_ (Baton Rouge) 19-A: It's not the bullet that has
your name on it that's the bad one. It's the one addressed "To whom it may
concern" that worries me.

2008 _Las Vegas [Nev.] Review-Journal_ (Nov. 7) 2B:  We had a saying in my
unit: [in Vietnam]: You don't worry about the bullet with your name on
it....It's the one addressed "to whom it may concern" that you worry about.

The 1943 ex. (uttered by the comic William Bendix) does not appear in the
nonfiction account by Richard Tregaskis that the movie is loosely based on.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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