[ken5050]

So, I was wondering if any here had any ideas, or insight, as to the derivation, and if they remembered when they were first exposed to it in their own military service. Its use, as we know, has spread across the various branches of the military, and there is even some doubt as to which service first adopted it. It's now ubiquitous in civilian life as well, even on the homepage of "FR."

When I was enjoying the "pleasures" of Quantico in the mid 60's, during PLC the term was used often, but wasn't the institutional response it is today....

Please flag any others who might be iterested...

[Maceman]

I always thought it was from that movie with Al Pacino, where he plays the blind guy.

[da_toolman]

Hoo Yah Daddy...

[oyez]

"Hoo-yah!".

I don't recall that in my heyday (^67-^72 USN)

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Since at least the early 80's, Marines have bellowed ooh-rah.

[phasma proeliator]

Richard Marcinko...

you here?

[Demosthenes]

In Joliet, we used to say "Boo-Yah..." ain't never heard of no "hoo-yah..."

[SkyPilot]

It's stupid.

[D-fendr]

A closely related cry, impossible to represent in letters, is used by Texas A&M cadets. It's called a "hoo-wah" but that's not exactly how it sounds. I don't know when it originated there, but at least before the 60s, possibly much earlier.

A&M used to be only for military, ROTC, students, was much like West Point or Citadel, and graduated a great many Army officers.

The hoo-wah was a junior (serge-butt) privledge, forbidden for freshman (fish) and sophomores (p!ssheads). At the moment that sophomores officially became juniors, you would hear thousands of hoo-wahs sounding like some jungle cacaphony.

[Billthedrill]

I first learned it being run around NRTC in 1970 in San Diego by a very large Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant. I was a skinny seaman recruit. He thought shouting "hoo-yah" (only it was more like "oo-rah") was a good idea. Correspondingly, I thought it was a VERY good idea...

[MudPuppy]

Hooah (who-ah), adj., U.S. Military Slang. Referring to or meaning anything and everything except "no."
A masculine guttural sound often used when at a loss for words. More specifically relates to: good copy,
solid copy, roger, good or great; message received; understood; glad to meet you; welcome;
I do not know, but will check on it; I haven't the vaguest idea; I am not listening; that is enough of your drivel;
sit down; stop sniveling; you've got to be kidding; yes; yes sir; affirmative; sure; ok; you got it; thank you;
go to the next [briefing] slide; you have taken the correct action; I don't know what that means,
but am too embarrassed to ask for clarification; that is really neat, I want one too; and amen.

[harpseal]

Okay according to the story as it existed in 1967 the first use of the term HooYah was at a volley ball game in 1954 I can not remeber the class number that supposedly used it. By 1967 it was part of the drill in BUDS. I did not hear other groups using the term the way frogs did until much later. Even then Hoorah is used much more frequently by the USMC than Hooyah the two terms are different and can often be confused by those whose ears are not attuned.

Stay well - Stay safe- Stay armed - Yorktown

[RaceBannon]

At Parris Island, I was shouting like I did in High School on the football field. I was quite motivated. My shouting was also like a scream, a Rebel-Yell-if-a-yankee-could-do-it kind of thing.

A friendly Drill Instructer pulled me aside and explained a better way, the Marine Corps OOH-RAH, which in 1977, Not One person in the Army that I heard of ever used anything similar to.

So, I credit the USMC with the origin of OOH-RAH. I heard some Marine cut it from a Russian term URRAH, loosely translated into:Kill them all. That could be false, I dunno.

[gunnyg]

OohRah???

I really doubt that I will now see here anything I haven't read before; however, you are welcome to also post your information comments, whatever to my Gunny G's USMC OohRah Forum

I have been attempting to determine the origin of oohrah for some time now. Your attention is invited to the material already posted above.

Semper Fidelis
R.W."Dick" Gaines
GySgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-'72

[WhiskeyPapa]

I read a book about the battle of Antietam-- it might have been "Landscape Turned Red", in which the "Manly hurrahs" of the Union troops are mentioned.

Walt

[gunnyg]

My best guess on OohRah has always been the following, as it first began to surface, bit by bit, in the Corps in the years following 1956, the year of the movie. Through the years after I left the Corps in 1972, I just thought that the oohrah thing was a passing joke/fad!

Somewhere in the back recesses of my mind-housing-group I expected that it might be an outgrowth of the old, 1956 flik, THE DI, starring Jack Webb as Gunny Moore, where he commands his recruit platoon, "Tigers, Let Me Hear You ROAAAARRR!!!"

It wasn't all that many years after that when the oohrah thing began.

But it now seems that that is a much too simple an explanation for anyone to accept.

Dick Gaines

[Dave S]

Now dont flame me over this but as an almost daily viewer of Jag I believe the term used by the Seals and the Marines sound similar but are not the same. Cant recall which is which.

[backup]

Bunch of dyslexics trying to yell "Yahoo!"

[The Shrew]

Ken,

You've got to go to the source. Hey guys! What say you?

Semper Fi!

TS

[doctor noe]

The term "hooyah" was very big in the mid-late 70's in So. Calif. AOR station KMET (Los Angeles) made the phrase famous when virtually their entire staff of DJs made it a regular part of their vocabulary. Even bumper stickers with the phrase were very commonplace throughout the southland. The phrase was generally shouted out in a moment of glee...either in response to a "kick-ass" song, sexual innuendo, etc. Alas, KMET no longer exists and was replaced by a new-age format and new call letters. The phrase, "hooyah," continues on but not universally. Anybody over the age of 35 who listened to AOR music during that time, will always remember "hooyah!"

[Redcloak]

"Whoo-Ya!", KMET 94.7 FM. Ah, the memories of misspent youth.