As a sort of followup to this thread, what are the acceptable military responses to an order besides “yes sir”? I base this question on the few that I’ve heard on TV or read in books, and these are all United States. I’m sure there are equivalents in other countries…
Marines
In addition to a “grunt” that I don’t know how to spell, I’ve heard that “Semper Fi” may be a valid response. As R Lee Ermey says, that’s based on the official Marine Corps motto.
Airborne Troops
IF you have jump wings, if heard that “Airborne” is acceptable.
Cavalry
In the past, I have heard that “Gerry Owen” was acceptable for cavalry, as it is a reference to what is/was? the official song for the US Cavalry.
Are there any other such phrases that are acceptabile, if not militarily correct?
I’ve ben told that at the beginning of your stay in the armed forces (boot camp, officer school, one of the academies, etc.) you are only allowed to respond with:
yes sir
no sir
i don’t understand sir
i’ll find out sir
or something close to those…
the marine sound is basically oo-aah. It can be used as a question, an answer or an exclamation. You could basically have a conversation go like this:
King The company commander, drill instructor, whatever in boot camp will be a senior NCO, not a commisioned officer. Only commissioned officers (and possibly W.O.s) are addressed as “sir.” Addressing an enlistied person as sir is generally taken as an insult with such retorts as “I work for a living.” or “My parents were married.”
Be careful about what you glean fro movies and TV. Full Metal Jacket was very correct in jargon and military protocol probably because R. Lee was hired as a technical cunsultant before he was cast. Unfortunately that is an exception. The otherwise terrific Men of Honor grated on me becuase Chief Sunday was addressed as sir and saluted by enlisted men through the whole movie. Forrest Gump actually got it right too.
Marines can be quite a bit more aticulate but then again most of the ones I encountered were aviation tech types. “Aye-aye” is an acceptable acknowledgement of an order in the navy and marine corps.
It has been a long time since Basic Training and quite possibly they have changed such protocals but I doubt it.
In Air Force Basic Training when you are addressed by the training instructor the first word out of your mouth had better be sir. So yes you do address them as sir, training instructors that is, regardless of their rank.
King Bubba, it is pronounced “ooo-rah”, emphasis variable depending on circumstances. And Marine is capitalized. As is Navy when referring to the US Navy, padeye.
“Aye-Aye” is formal “I understand and will comply”. Append the rank of the person giving the order to complete the reply, “Aye-Aye, Gunnery Sergeant!”. Position may be used while in boot camp instead of rank, “Aye-Aye, Senior Drill Instructor!”. If an officer gives the order “Aye-Aye, sir!” is appropriate.
Less formal replies can be “Roger”, “Copy”, or “Wilco”.
When an order is given to a formation, like dismissing them for the day, the group replay can be “Marine Corps!” or “Ooo-Rah!”, but Marines generally do not reply to an order given to a single person with “Marine Corps!”
My dealing with the Army have shown me some units say their unit name or motto in reply to an order, such as “Airborn!”, or “Renegade!”.
My OP was more about alternatives to the standard response rather than what the proper standard response is. I was particularly intrigued the other day when I came accross a reference to “Gerry Owen” as it seems to be one of the pieces of miltary jargon that has fallen out of favor (although any Cavalry guys out there should feel free to correct me).
Another example of classic jargon that is now rarely heard is “The Birkenhead Drill” which Kipling poem about a British unit that stood at attention on the deck of a sinking ship so that the women and children could get away on lifeboats. If the troops had abandoned ship, the life boats would have been swamped and more people would have died. This lead to the first reported “women and children first” statement and a whole culture of the military taking it on the chin for civilians (something totally new at the time). One of many google links on the story… http://www.overberg.co.za/birkenhead/story.htm
Kipling even wrote a poem about it (as if Kipling hasn’t written a poem about every aspect of military life, past present and future… :))…
“But to stand an’ be still to the Birken’ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew.”
I like trying to track down these things when I read/hear/see them in films just to find out the real story.
Please forgive my jumpy cut and paste in the second paragarph of my last post. Replace “which Kipling poem about a” with “refers to a”. Preview only works if you actually catch your mistakes.
My history teacher, one of the strictest I’ve ever had–yet also super friendly–refuses to let anyone call him sir. He always responds: “Don’t call me sir, I was an enlisted man” or something like that, it’s usually mumbled.
Padeye: Could you explain exactly what this means? I didn’t quite understand your post about it. I assume he was in the army (but he’s never mentioned it) so what would you assume he did there, if such an assumption could be made.
As to whether it is oo-rah or oo-ahh, well it’s been a while since I’ve spent any time with Marines…there is definately some sort of soft consonant sound, but I’m not sure it’s a full ‘r’…results may vary by dialect I 'spect.
I’m not working from the movies, btw. I have never been in the military, but I have had occassion to be around them, and so that’s where I get my info from. Where I was was kind of informal, so maybe I didn’t get the formalities down right.
As for the ‘only 4 acceptable answers’ thing, I got that from a couple of Midshipmen recalling their plebe days at USNA.
Don’t US Navy SEALs use “Hoo-yah” in a manner vaguely like that in which Marines use “Ooo-rah”?
I got that impression from watching a few episodes of the recent Discovery Channel (?) series that followed a class through BUD/S. Trainees responded to just about every order with something like, “Hoo-yah, Instructor.”
Adam, the “I work for a living” line is a mock-hostile way of reminding the recruit that only officers are called “sir.” Enlisted men and NCOs are addressed by their rank. The implication, of course, is that officers don’t work for a living, and that the sergeant is insulted at the suggestion that he is such a parasite. At least, this is the understanding I got from ROTC and my brothers’ basic training stories (“Don’t call me Sir, I **work ** for a living, son!” (Always calling people “son,” those guys were; that, and they all had Southern accents, even the ones from Maine)
Garry Owen was the unofficial marching song of the Seventh Cavalry. Gen. Custer reportedly heard the song among his Irish troop and liked it. The tune was then played so often the 7th became tied to it. The tune is first documented as Auld Bessy in 1788. It was later (1800) in the opera Harlequin Amulet (the Majic of Mona). About that time it was attributed to “Jackson of Cork” by a book of Country Dances by William Campbell. It also appeared in part two (1802) of Nathaniel Gow’s four volume Complete Repository of the Original Scotch Slow Tunes.
“Garryowen” is an old Irish quick-step that can be traced back to the early 1860s. In 1867 Garryowen was adopted by the 7th Cavalry Regiment as the official Air (tune) of the Regiment, and the historical nickname given to the 7th Cavalry Regiment and troopers. It became the Official tune of the 1st Cavalry Division in 1981. “Garryowen” has become undoubtedly the most famous of all the regimental marches in the Army.
In 1867, one of Custer’s first official acts with the Seventh Cavalry was to organize a regimental band. The reason that “GarryOwen” was adopted as the regimental song, as the story goes - one of the Irish “melting pot” troopers of the 7th Cavalry, under the influence of “spirits”, was singing the song. By chance Custer heard the melody, liked the cadence, and soon began to hum the tune himself. The tune has a lively beat, that accentuates the cadence of marching horses. Soon the tune was played so often that the 7th Cavalry became known as the “GarryOwen” Regiment. "GarryOwen eventually became the official song of the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas in 1981.
Wow Duckster, you had a lot more success than I did when I tried to look that up. Spelling and spaces I guess. I saw the term used in a John Ringo novel, in a context that would make sense with regards to the 7th Cavalry. It was a last stand sort of moment suitable for either Custer or Hal Moore. I found the song reference but somehow missed the 7th Cavalry connection.
I get the feeling that any of these “unofficial” responses are not the kind of thing you say in a bar crowded with the “wrong type of uniforms.” That is, you really shouldn’t stand up and shout “Airborne” when the US Marines are hanging out in your local bar. Well… maybe that depends on what you think the expected result will be.
Anyone know of any foriegn equivalents for groups like the Coldstream Guards, Highlanders or Légion Étrangère?
Yes, brad_d, SEALS have a similar noise with similar uses. It always pissed them off when we yelled “Ooo-rah!” instead of their noise. Kinda like some jarhead friends who went to Jump School. Students there are supposed to yell “Airborne!” all the damned time, but he always yelled “Marine Corps!” instead. He did a boatload of pushups.
Thats a big negative. When I went thru BMT in 95 they specifically forbade you from saying sir first. The only thing you were supposed to lead off with “sir” was your reporting statement “Sir Airman Stinkpalm reports as ordered”.
I guess that alot (all) recruits watched Full Metal Jacket a thousand times before coming to BMT and it really made things difficult for the TI’s because they would always respond with “Sir, Yes Sir” when a “Yes Sir” was all that was required. That is exactly what our TI told us on the first night. They got PISSED if you lead off with Sir. Big Time.
“Aye-aye” is the classic, I guess. When I was in boot camp (1981) we were taught that this meant, “I have understood your instructions and will carry them out to the best of my ability.” I never used it because it made me feel like a doofus to do so. I said, “Yes, Sir (or Ma’am)” or, “OK, Chief” or, “I’ll get right on it” or whatever. Of course, I was never on a ship and all of my commands were pretty casual. My husband (who retired one year ago today after 26 years in the Navy) used “aye-aye” often. He was on 4 ships though and was, in general, a much more squared-away and serious sailor than I was. He used “Roger” or “Roger that” occasionally in lieu of “I understand.” Apparently he doesn’t mind sounding like a doofus.
From my days at RMA Sandhurst on a “Young Officers Course”, we had the interesting situation that the instructors (all enlisted) were all called “sir” by us, but we young officers were called “sir” by them.
One of our number (braver than me) asked the Instructor at a break:
Trainee: “Sir, why do we call you ‘sir’ and you call us 'sir”?"
Instructor: “Well sir, when you call us ‘sir’, you mean it.”
