Mayday, Mayday, Mayday

Frederick Stanley Mockford, a senior radio officer

at Croydon Airport in London circa 1923

I found this interesting as I like trivia. The subject of the origin and meaning of the voice-procedure radio communication distress signal "mayday" came up, somehow, in beer conversation. This is what I found;

"The "mayday" procedure word was originated in 1923, by a senior radio officer at Croydon Airport in London. The officer, Frederick Stanley Mockford, was asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency. Since much of the traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, he proposed the expression "mayday" from the French m'aider ('help me'), a shortened form of venez m'aider ('come and help me'). It is unrelated to the holiday May Day.

Before the voice call "mayday", SOS was the Morse code equivalent of the mayday call. In 1927, the International Radiotelegraph Convention of Washington adopted the voice call mayday as the radiotelephone distress call in place of the SOS radiotelegraph (Morse code) call."

That was an excerpt from the full article Mayday - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, which includes actual recordings of mayday calls.

Take care and stay safe,
Joe Doakes aka Kilogulf59
Integrated Close Combat Forum

--------------------------------------------

Please note: prior to commenting or passing judgment, either in a positive or negative manner, I suggest you read About Joe Doakes’ Place and the Disclaimer assuming you haven't already. Thank you.

Origin of the Term "Bug Out"

M*A*S*H "Bug Out" Episode - 1976

This is an excerpt from Fighting Words: From the World Wars to Korea by Christine Ammer on the origin of the term “bug out” amongst other terms. It’s an interesting article and worth a look-see.

THE SLANG OF “THE FORGOTTEN WAR” as the Korean conflict from 1950 to 1953 is often called, has not been forgotten. Much of it originated in World War II, because many of the American troops in Korea were World War II veterans.

One such term was to bug out, or simply to bug, meaning to run away and hence play the coward. Its origin is unknown, but it may have come from the sense of being obsessed or desperate. The term was first employed during World War II, but it did not gain wide usage until the Korean War.

It had multiple but related meanings. In noun form, often hyphenated (bug-out), it denoted a hasty retreat, an escape route, and the person beating such a retreat. A 1951 New York Herald Tribune article had: “Men talked of ‘bug-out gas’ and ‘bug-out jeeps’ and ‘bug-out routes’.” The military film D.I. (1957) used it denoting a person: “We’ve got a bug-out, Owen”.

The term gained further currency with “I’m Movin’ On”, a popular song of 1950 by Hank Snow that aired on the Armed Services Radio Network. Some soldier—it is not remembered who—changed the words to commemorate a major U.S. retreat.

It was supposedly first sung by black soldiers of the 24th Infantry Regiment, and one line went, “When them Chinese mortars begin to thud, the old Deuce-Four begin to bug.” There were numerous other versions of the song, but many had the refrain, “We’re buggin’ out, We’re movin’ on”. It was renamed “Bugout Boogie” and officially forbidden but nevertheless became the unofficial anthem of the Korean conflict. From it also came the expression to pull a Hank Snow, meaning to bug out. In time, bug out entered the civilian vocabulary with the similar meaning of quitting or abandoning some enterprise.

Joe Doakes'/Kilogulf59's Note: I feel the TV show M*A*S*H probably brought the term into the popular vernacular, thus the picture.

Take care and stay safe,
Joe Doakes aka Kilogulf59
Integrated Close Combat Forum

--------------------------------------------

Please note: prior to commenting or passing judgment, either in a positive or negative manner, I suggest you read About Joe Doakes’ Place and the Disclaimer assuming you haven't already. Thank you.