body bag speedball
n.— «As Hobbs and an initial element stormed the farmhouse Monday morning, a second group lugged an enormous human remains pouch filled with water, ammunition and other supplies. Soldiers call this particular form of air assault luggage a “body bag speedball.” A handful of soldiers wrestled with the bag, dragging it through the field. “It’s bad enough we have to carry all this crap,” lamented one soldier. “But we also have to carry it in a body bag. That’s bad luck if you ask me.”» —“Elusive insurgent evades surprise air raid” by Monte Morin in Fedewah, Iraq Stars and Stripes Mar. 15, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
At a South African boarding school, Rob picked up a phrase from Afrikaans that translates to land with your bum in the butter, meaning “to be lucky.” There are several variations in English — often with other words for “bum”, like...
Ophelia in Johnson City, Tennessee, wonders about the exclamation her great-grandmother often used when something surprised her: Cat bristle! That may be her own version of a minced oath, although it fits with the idea of how a cat’s tail might look...