"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....

[Dale 1]

Outstanding definition!

[SuperLuminal]

"..slopchute, pogey bait, shelter half and Mickey Mouse boots..gung ho"

Add "BAM"s to the list and it all starts coming back to me...{:-)

Semper Fi.......a constant.

[SuperLuminal]

Too much like what's used by the other services.

BTW, some time ago, in a response to me, you made a neat comment. I never responded because of data loss during a workstation change over. In any case, I arrived on the penninsula in late Nov 52. So I was not part of the fiasco you alluded to.

[TonyRony]

I hate to take this topic in yet another direction, but I cannot help thinking that the many times I've heard service members loudly sounding off with this now-popular expression, to ME it sounded as if they were saying "Oo-uh" which is close to the version you give as the Army's version.

When I was in the service, I had NEVER, EVER heard this term used in formations, nor in large gatherings of military personnel.

However, I AM familiar with this phrase for having served in Viet Nam for two years. "Oo-uh" is the Vietnamese for "yeah"; the word for "yes" sounds very different.

I and many others over the years have used the phrase when wanting to simply say "yes" or respond affirmatively, but saying it using this familiar Vietnamese word was a way to "distinguish" (for lack of a better word) ourselves, assert ourselves as part of the brotherhood of Viet Nam veterans, and in a very simple way, remind ourselves of some of the slang we used while stationed in "The 'Nam," as we used to say.

And that's about it. I'm not arguing the point, nor trying to make anyone believe me. I'm just telling you what I think about it.

Oh, and if anyone brings up the topic of the denigrating term, "gook," I have a theory on that too. It's entirely possible that the term originated with Korean War veterans. I say that cause I was stationed in Korea for 5 years, but well after the war ... from '75 to '80.

But my point is that "Korea" is not the Korean word for "Korea." It's "Han gook." You know how the German word for "Germany" is "Deutschland"? Well, the Koreans pronounce the name of their country as "Han gook." Therefore, I'm speculating that some Korean War vets may have referred to Koreans as "gooks" and passing it along to the Viet Nam vets in the early 60's is entirely possible.

Thanks for the chance to post.

Tony Rony

[Larry Lucido]

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

At Ft. McClellan, it was "ooh-rah!" Yelled loudly and often, at the "suggestion" of the drill sergeants. Nobody argued with them.

[Larry Lucido]

Geez, Tony, how did you dig this thread up? I'm scrolling through, reading posts from harpseal, doing a double-take, wondering if he's back with us again, until I checked the date.

[Travis McGee]

I don't have any idea about possible VN origins of "hoo ya!" The SEAL and UDT Teams were using it like an ancient tradition it seems to me, back as far as 1979 when I went through BUD/S, at least.

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."

[Rockpile]

You know, one of the slang words used by US troops to describe the the insurrectos in the Philippines a century ago was "googoos". I have no idea what it comes from but it was definitely in vogue. I used to think that "gook" was a corruption but the Korean angle sounds more believable.

[Wolf_Lochert]

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.

See also the following additional discussion here.

[Finski]

Interesting flow of "Whoo-YA"'s etymology.

I concur that its spelling on this thread as "WHOO-Ya!" comes directly and ONLY from KMET's 70's radio days. The use of "Hoo-Rah" and its various permutations is, indeed, a military origin.

Truth be told(and if it was already stated here, sorry, I just didn't see it referenced...) "Whoo-Ya!" as KMET intended it had nothing to do with triumphant exclamation. It referred to dopers, hopheads, and stoners who smoked paraquat-infested marijuana. The defoliant clearly did nothing to deter pot smoking, but resulted in a sound like cardboard tearing at every concert in Los Angeles that I attended. My older brother attended Cal Jam 1 and 2, and claimed that the only thing more persistent than the bad sound system was the gravely hacking of paraquat-spewing, red-eyed hippies who refused to give up the leaf. "WHOO-Ya!" perfectly mimics what that sounded like, even in my distant memories.

Anyway, just my two cents. Great forum here, folks.

Fin

[ssgtmick]

It is slang for hurray or hoorah, almost always pronounced hoo-rah.

hurrah
1680s, alteration of huzza, apparently influenced by similar shouts in German, Danish, Swedish. Perhaps picked up during Thirty Years’ War. According to Moriz Heyne, this was the battle-cry of Prussian soldiers during the War of Liberation (1812-13). Hooray is its popular form and is almost as old. Also hurray; hoorah (1936).

It was seldom used around me as I served in the Air Force and Guard during the 80’s.