[Ads-l] elephant walk

Tue May 13 18:01:24 UTC 2025

I have a strong memory of compiling cites for this term seeral years ago and posting it here.  But searching the archives does not yield it.

This is what they look like:
https://www.defense.gov/Multimedia/Photos/igphoto/2003646201/
https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/3375434/an-elephant-walk-to-remember/
https://www.defense.gov/Multimedia/Photos/igphoto/2003263158/

1965 The Springfield [Mass] Union 20 Jul 2/2

The codeword exercise will involve the sounding of the alert klaxon on base with crew members rushing to their aircraft, starting them and taxiing to take-off position on the runway in a maneuver flightline observers commonly refer to as "the elephant walk."

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1069932454/?match=2&terms=%22elephant%20walk%22%20afb

2013 Air Force Magazine Mar 55/2

 It results in an “Elephant Walk,” a mass taxi after the breakneck preparation.

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Magazine%20Documents/2013/March%202013/0313kunsan.pdf

2019 Arctic Warrior 29 Mar 6/3

Dozens of aircraft taxi along the runways at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson March 26 in an “Elephant walk” conducted as part of exercise Polar Force.

https://media-cdn.dvidshub.net/pubs/pdf_46837.pdf

2022 Washington Post 26 May A14/2

South Korea's air force conducted an "elephant walk" training exercise with fighter planes the day before in preparation for a possible provocation by North Korea, the joint chiefs said.  Elephant walking is a process that allows many planes to take off in close succession.

2024 The Beacon Jan 12

 An elephant walk is what the 729th Airlift Squadron at March Air Reserve Base, California, demonstrated with five C-17 Globemaster III heavy cargo aircraft preceding a minimum interval of takeoff (MITO), which can facilitate rapidly launching a sortie surge of planes for mass deployment event.

https://www.march.afrc.af.mil/Portals/135/BEACON/The%20Beacon%20Newsletter%20Jan%202024.pdf

This one is not related:
Crepeau, Richard C., "Initiation Rituals" (2000). On Sport and Society. 269.

It is called the "elephant walk," an all male single-file procession in the nude in which all participants are connected in a chain by holding on to the penis of the person just behind. This is not a new sport, but it is a part of the sporting atmosphere in many male athletic settings. Most recently this charming ritual was in the news at the University of Vermont where the hockey season has come to an abrupt end.

https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1277&context=onsportandsociety

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[Ads-l] elephant walk
Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM<mailto:ads-l%40listserv.linguistlist.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BAds-l%5D%20elephant%20walk&In-Reply-To=%3CCAFANsHhTekooszeLTW9i66iVbqPNiUVYXeJe5%2BZA7iz2ub3u1A%40mail.gmail.com%3E>
Sat May 10 12:14:37 UTC 2025

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  https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-air-forces-massive-53-220123130.html :

>Dating back to World War II, the term "elephant walk" referred to the
taxiing of military aircraft en masse before taking off in single-file
formations like a herd of elephants walking trunk-to-tail.<

More likely an allusion to the 1954 movie, _Elephant Walk_, rerun on TV for
at least sixty years. It ends when a herd of elephants stomps through the
mansion of an evil plantation owner. (It starred Elizabeth Taylor, "hotter
than hot" according to the poster.)

I don't find any exx. at either Newspapers.com or GenealogyBank.

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

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