Originally Posted by
Hacker15e
I was told by some old Thud pilots at a River Rat convention once that the container/cranium game originated in Vietnam, and it had to do with being "allowed" to say box (body part) and head (an activity) only if you'd had contact with said body part or participated in said activity with a round-eye woman in the previous 69 hours.
If you hadn't earned it, then you were required to use the substitute words.
Obviously the game has mutated a little for the PC age.
Topper:
I have to agree with Hawk. It seems to transcend the three services, although it is more pronounced in the Air Force. And take it in jest---it is a semi-self-deprecating spot of humor done with hyperbole.
I've even seen evidence of it in ally countrys' air forces.
Hacker:
I've often wondered where/when "Deceased Insect" originated. My hunch is Vietnam, which must have been rife with critters in the hooches, but it could have been Korea, or even WWII. Anyone know?
I also wonder when HEFOE was invented. My guess is Korea. I suspect the "basic jet approach speed" of 130 kts (which doesn't work for much of anything today, except a really light F-16, F-15, or F-18), was based on the No-Flap approach speed of an F-86.
I once read a story in a flying magazine that explained the origin of "Sierra Hotel." In this explanation, a bunch of fighter guys were somewhere on R&R in Southeast Asia. One of the guys had eaten particularly spicy food. The evening got late, and our hero, now realizing an urgent need to relieve himself, was trying to flag a taxi to get back to quarters.
He was repeatedly yelling "Hotel, Sierra, Hotel, Sierra!!", not Sierra, hotel, but he said it with such regular frequency, it was hard to tell where the cadence started.
The article gave his name (I wish I remembered it), and sadly said he was KIA a few months later.
BTW: the origin of the term "Balls to the wall" is a flying term, and not a sexual innuendo. It refers to old prop aircraft of yore. In a B-17/24/29/etc, if you needed maximum power, you had to push 4 throttles, 4 prop controls, and 4 mixture levers full forward.
Each lever had a wooden ball on top. You pushed them towards the firewall.
And there you have it.
