We had old team "cruise books" (like thin soft-bound HS yearbooks) from UDT Teams going back to WW2. If anyone wants to know for sure about the origins, I'd look in these platoon deployment "cruise books." Then you would be able to see where the first use of "hoo ya" ina team context occurs.
And of course, you can't dismiss the similarity to the USMC "Ooh-rah!" or the US Army's "Hoo-ah!"
The similarity of these three military war cries cannot be a coincidence. My guess would be Chinese, Korean or VN. For example, the USMC's "gung-ho" comes from the Chinese for "working together."
Pretty close. It's from the Korean War, from the Turkish bayonet charge yell, approximately pronounced uhhr-raah, and very similar to the Urr-ahh battle cry used by Soviet forces during WWII, probably from a common Mongolian origin. Some claim a derivation from the ancient Babylonian city of Urr.
But the warcry of our Turkish allies in the Korean conflict was adopted by the 27th "Wolfhounds" Regiment, around the same time one of their young BAR gunners picked up the Turkish Medal of Honor while accompanying the Turks in a nighttime bayonet attack on Chinese positions. I've heard it from him, firsthand, that it's the Turkish bayonet charge yell, and I wouldn't care to have him yelling it at me, bayonet-fitted rifle OR BAR in hand. I'm concerned that he might get a bit carried away.