Hearing the cry there, and seeing it in several references, it was spelled as "Oooh-Rah!!!
The "OOOH" portion is pronounced as it is in "ooze"....
What say you, JoeSixPack1, SandRat, or freema,
daughter/wife/mother/aunt/etc/of Marines?!
My time aboard Parris Island was during THE biggest buildup in Corps History - 35,000 SOB (Souls On Board) according to the History Museum at PI.
It so happened that the Iwo Jima Monument on the Parade Deck there (every dime paid by Marines) had its official Dedication Ceremony soon after I graduated from Boot Camp, in which I had served as Right Guide, and went straight to the podium.
Because of my experience, I was given the high honor and privilege of carrying the American Flag in it, as Guidon Bearer out front with the "A" Company Commander, leading eight full companies of United States Marines.
In 2002, my husband and I took our grandson, then 16 and in JRROTC, to Parris Island for a graduating Company ceremony to receive their emblems and the right to be called MARINE.
Here is my photograph at the 50 years point since dedicating the Monument...
It obviously still is true that if there is a parade on that field, "the wind will come"..:)
The National Anthem is interminably long when you are a small person holding a full-sized American Flag straight out against the wind!!
[My DI from Boot Camp on the sidelines of the Dedication Ceremony raked in lotsa dollars with bets with scoffers on my ability to perform my Guidon Bearer duties to perfection..:)]