There is a recent sub text to this blog that some very careful readers may have noticed. I became interested in the NRA after reading the requirements to buy guns in the United States.
This arose out of my interest in the potential civil war that the political environment and the media have created. Which in turn has led me to consider buying a weapon. Before buying any weapon I decided to learn how to handle a variety of pistols at a local firing range. A close friend and colleague allowed me to fire half a dozen of his pistols.
I am not required to have a safety license in order to buy or transfer a pistol because I was honorably discharged from the service. From the Army.
In looking at my documents from the Army I learned that I was not discharged. Because I was on reserve duty on my last assignment I was merely transferred to inactive status and received a letter that I could be reactivated by Congress. I also noted in my records that I had achieved expert marksmanship status. I didn’t know that.
In describing my recollection of the firing range that we visited annually in the reserves I happen to mention ‘Maggie's drawers’ in a large group of people. No one recognized the term.
When we went to the firing range in the Army for our standard issue weapon, the M1 carbine, we fired at targets 100 yards away. Half the company was on the firing line and half was behind a bunker behind the targets. After the firing ceased, those of us behind the targets would come out and use flags to indicate where the bullets had penetrated the target. One flag was red and indicated the soldier had missed the target altogether. That flag was called ‘Maggie's drawers’.
It is not hard to guess why waving a red flag was called Maggie's drawers. It dates from the period before Kotex and Tampax when women used rags for menstruation. These rags obviously had to be cleaned and hung outside to dry. ‘Maggies drawers’.
This is not rude. It would not have bothered any of us because the Army was all-male at the time.