The whole nine yards

Posted by L. Collins on September 01, 2003

In Reply to: The whole nine yards posted by Les Sobel on August 27, 2003

I had heard the term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."