Mike, a retired Air Force pilot in Mondovi, Wisconsin, asks why the bomb-release switch on an aircraft is called a pickle button and why pickle off means to drop bombs or fuel tanks. The likely trail starts in the U.S. Navy, where torpedoes were...
DADT n.— «One factor that makes her case interesting is that Witt never openly violated the tangled “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, or “DADT” as it is known. She was outed when an anonymous tipster told Air Force...
gangloading n.— «Yesterday I joined 14 students in the altitude training chamber at the Eighty-ninth Physiological Training Flight at Andrews Air Force Base in Camp Springs, Maryland. Wearing helmets and oxygen masks that covered...
It’s the Moby Dick of etymology: Where do we get the phrase “the whole nine yards”? A pediatrician in North Carolina wonders if it derives from a World War II phrase involving “nine yards” of ammunition. Grant and...
freshman retiree n.— «Last July, after more than 20 years of service—a period in which the family moved 15 times, lived in four countries and endured three deployments—Todd, 44, and Julie, 40, retired from the Air Force.…Last August...
yellow-star cluster n.— «Starting with the upcoming 2009 budget, the Air Force will need at least $20 billion more every year to meet its modernization needs, he said. “I think this is really a yellow-star cluster,” Wynne said, describing...