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The whole 9 yards


Buckshot Bob

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I was told in boot camp that the term was used by the British and American Navies in regards to the sails and rigging full sail for highest speed. 
This training was questioned by some Air Force lads in the Helm Club at Great Lakes Naval Base / Training Center and they referred to the “whole nine yards” as originating from the ammo belts Buckshot Bob referred to above. 
Well, since there were a dozen Zoomies and a couple of hundred Squids, we Squids prevailed. :lol:

 

Wikipedia references some language idiot from Yale so I won’t post his self indulged fantasy but I will post this from NPR. It’s an interesting read:

https://www.npr.org/2013/01/14/169140590/-the-whole-nine-yards-of-what
 

Regardless, “the whole nine yards” means “give it everything you got” and truly, that’s all that really matters. :D

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Dang, and I thought it referred to drinking 9 of those long tall bottle/glasses Road Kill Cafe used to serve!

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Lots of stories about the phrase. Nothing has ever been proven to be entirely accurate though. One explanation I read involved the length of a man’s Kilt.

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8 hours ago, Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 said:

I believe we're reloading the right side .50's for a P-47, there. 36 yards worth, per wing. THAT'S a lot of nasty!:blush:

 

Which leads to the question of: "How fast does a P-47 puke out 36 yards of .50s?"

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12 minutes ago, Flatwater Monte said:

 

Which leads to the question of: "How fast does a P-47 puke out 36 yards of .50s?"

 

Quick enough that I have seen footage of one flown by my former boss's father in WWII knocking over a box car.

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1 hour ago, Flatwater Monte said:

 

Which leads to the question of: "How fast does a P-47 puke out 36 yards of .50s?"

 

The AN/M2 rate of fire was 600 to 800 rounds per minute; so 25 to 35 seconds.  

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2 hours ago, DocWard said:

 

Quick enough that I have seen footage of one flown by my former boss's father in WWII knocking over a box car.

I could watch train busting Gun camera footage all day. The hell with shooting down 109s. Gimme a big ole steam locomotive. 

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To me, a steam locomotive (or any steam powered machine) is one of those rare pieces of machinery that appears to live and breathe when you stand next to them as they huff away or are running at speed. I couldn’t care less about the rest of the train, but there’s a small piece of me that’s sad when they’re punctured and bleed steam, looking like a harpooned whale. 
 

Yeah, I’m weird, but dang I love steam power.  
 

 

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Not your Chattanooga Cho Cho

 

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5 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

Lots of stories about the phrase. Nothing has ever been proven to be entirely accurate though. One explanation I read involved the length of a man’s Kilt.

I'd heard that, too.  A great kilt probably came close, but modern kilts don't.

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The story I liked for this, and it is undoubtedly no more true than any of the others, is the entire load of a concrete truck. Instead of sending a truck here, to drop off a couple yards of ready mix, then send it over there for another couple yards of ready mix, send it to my house and give me the whole nine yards.

 

This is back when concrete trucks were smaller, and did not hold as much as they do now.

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