"Hoo-yah!"...where did the term come from? When did you first use it in the military?

The Warrior Elite: The forging of Seal Class 228 | Dick Couch

[ken5050]

I just finish reading "The Warrior Elite: The Forging of Seal Class 228" by Dick Couch, Capt, USN (Ret) and a former Seal. It's a superb book, a great read, and I commend it to any of you with an interest in the military and/or special forces. On one page there is a brief discussion, during a "beer blast" after the class completes Hell Week, of the source of the term "Hoo-yah!". Several theories are suggested, with no strong advocates, and some credence is given that it was a purposeful transposition of the term "Yahoo"..which was commonly used in the 50-60's....

[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.

[MudPuppy]

the Marine version: HOORAH or OOH-RAH sounds more like a bark or a grunt...

........and sounds funny when WMs say it.

[gnarledmaw]

"Boo-Yah"

Im wondering where that came from. Around here "booyah" is a traditional belgian chicken vegetable soup that you eat at big outdoor parties and sell to make money for the church.

I was entirely confused for days when I started seeing excited kids on tv yelling about "Belgian chicken soup". Its good but Im not sure that Id yell about it...

[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

[Frohickey]

I think that Hoo-Yah, or any of the other expression of gung-ho-ness by the military or paramilitary forces orginate all the way back to the Revolutionary War, maybe even further. Huzzah was the term used then.

[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.

[tracer]

At least one FReeper was led by my flippant post that wonder whether I am Marcinko. I am not, nor do I claim to have ever been a Navy Seal!! FWIW..... ];-)

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Ol' demo dick, eh?

[RaceBannon]

Sounds cute to me when the WM's say it!!...(sigh)...

[phasma proeliator]

Reckon... that's THE MAN....

[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

[harpseal]

It was strictly a frog thing then I do not know that anyone else uses the exact term.

Stay well - stay saf e- Stay armed - yorktown

[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.

[Walkingfeather]

Yep beat me too it. The years of KMET in so. California. I believe it was... Hooya ...disco sucks! Now can you name the popular KLOS D.J. of that era???

[WhiskeyPapa]

Huzzah was the term used then.

That's right. They do 'huzzahs' in the movie "Glory".

Ooh-rah's were in full force in 1973 when I went through PI.

Walt

[MoralSense]

F**ckin ay well tol', Bubba.