A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from August 23, 2013
Uncle Sam Ain’t Released Me Yet (“U.S. Army” backronym)

“Uncle Sam Ain’t Released Me Yet” is a backronym (back acronym) for “U.S. Army.” “U.S. Army, which many soldiers will tell you is a contraction for ‘Uncle Sam Ain’t Released Me Yet’” was cited in print in 1978. The reverse of USARMY is YMRASU, and this has been given the backronym of “Yes My Retarded Ass Signed Up.”
 
“Army” backronyms include “Aren’t Ready for the Marines Yet,” “Ain’t Really Men Yet” and “Airforce Released Me Yesterday.”
 
   
Google Books
Journal of American Folklore
1978    
Pg. 583:
A badge worn by every G.I. on his fatigue uniform reads simply U.S. Army, which many soldiers will tell you is a contraction for “Uncle Sam Ain’t Released Me Yet.”
 
Google Books
The American Military Ethic:
A Meditation

By James H. Toner
New York, NY: Praeger
1992
Pg. 17:
Lugubriously, I reflected on what the “U.S. Army” over my left pocket meant: “Uncle Sam Ain’t Released Me Yet.”
   
Google Books
Acronymania:
A Celebratory Roundup of Nomenclature Yielding Mischief:
Abbreviations, Neologisms, Initialisms, Acronyms!

By Don Hauptman
New York, NY: Dell Pub.
1993
Pg. 224:
U.S. Army becomes “Uncle Sam ain’t released me yet.”
 
Google Groups: sci.military.naval
Brad K. Browne  
5/17/95
Marine Soliders. How about Marine Jokes?
MARINE:
Muscles
Are
Required,
Intelligence
Not
Essential
 
US ARMY:
Uncle
Sam
Ain’t
Released
Me
Yet
 
NAVY:
Never
Again
Volunteer
Yourself
 
Urban Dictionary
usarmy
An acronym for Uncle Sam Aint Released Me Yet or alternet in reverse Yes My Retarded Ass Signed Up
Dang I have to go to Iraq because USARMY
by Kraftypatties Dec 4, 2004
 
Google Books
US Army Infantryman in Vietnam 1965-73
By Gordon Rottman
New York, NY: Osprey Publishing Ltd.
2005
Pg. 23:
Pointing to each letter on his own chest he said, “Uncle Sam Ain’t Released Me Yet.”
 
Google Books
A Young Soldier:
The Growth and the Demise of a Man

By Stephen Augustus
Xlibris Corporation (Xlibris.com)
2009
Pg. 158:
The standing joke is that U.S. Army is an acronym that stands for “Uncle Sam Ain’t Released Me Yet.”
 
Facebook
Uncle Sam Ain’t Released Me Yet
(Joines Facebook on April 20, 2010.—ed.)

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityGovernment/Law/Military/Religion /Health • Friday, August 23, 2013 • Permalink


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