> Of Joseph B. Reid >The US ARMY has used metric for many years so as >to been able to operate with its NATO allies. >In 1975 in Gaithersburg, MD, I asked the way to NIBS >(perhaps it was still the Bureau of Standards). The man, >obviously an Army officer, replied: "Go back 200 meters.
That sounds very much like how it used to be in Britain. There was 'leakage' from the military into public domains. I remember using the phrase '100 metres' to a friend in about 1980 and he was a little surprised (I was involved the military domain at the time). He knew what it meant because yards and metres are almost interchangeable and he would have said '100 yards'. I am not sure whether an American would say yards or feet for that distance. I only see feet used on roads and never yards. If you want an idea of how long the US Army has been using metric, a good guide is to look at medal citations. These are written by officers. You can see that in the late 1960's (e.g. Vietnam), they were using meters for citations but still occasionally spoke colloquially in yards. If you dig around, you will find plenty of medal citations online. Here is one such page: www.army.mil/cmh-pg/mohviet.htm
