On Fri, 24 Dec 2004 01:02:20 GMT, Richard Clark
wrote:

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 19:50:15 -0500, J. Teske
wrote:
According to scholars the version you cited
(which admittedly is more often seen) came about when posters were
published years ago for comsumption by engineers and written by
engineers who should have stuck to Pig Latin...

A googling will reveal several varients. A somewhat scholarly
discussion and a theory as to its origins can be found at
http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxillegi.html

I first heard it forty years ago when I was in college {English/French
major, not engineer}.

The discussion above credits General "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell as
popularizing the phrase when he gestingly took it as his motto.
The second time I heard it was from a famous cryptologist who actually
was on Stillwell's staff during WW II. [BTW I was a not-so-famous
cryptologist in my working life.]
The writer of the discussion attributes the phrase to British
Intelligence in WW II and having worked with these guys, I could
certainly believe it.

W3JT

Hi OM,

Umm, not my source (although my cohort). Check with John Ciardi's
"Good Words to You." He follows you closer, but there is no
"noncarborundum." As many of John's entries derive from the military,
I bet this one does too (which is where I heard it first 35 years ago
anyway).

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC