History channel is running a series called “Basic Training” that follows a bunch of Army recruits. I noticed that they use this term constantly, often without the exclamation point. It sounded like they use it just to confirm that everyone is listening, like this:
Sargeant: So you tuck the sheet under the bed like this, huah?
Recruits (in unison): Huah.
I’ve wondered if the phrase is related to the Native American (Cherokee?) exclamation “Ho-Wah!”
You can see an example of its use here (scroll down):
That might actually tie back to the story that the military phrase began with an Indian Chief’s greeting. Maybe the chief wasn’t mis-pronouncing anything, but was being misunderstood by the soldiers.
According to this site, the Cherokee exclamation ho-wa (note spelling difference) means “OK” or “all right” which seems to be similar usage to the military “hu-ah.”
The “all right!” definition of the Cherokee phrase is also given [url=“http://www.powersource.com/cocinc/language/fourth.htm”]here.
You might have something there. This newsletter has a section on the Cherokee language and gives the definition of ho-wah as “okay or alright”. Maybe this phrase has been floating through the military longer than we thought. Time to ask Cecil?
Oops. here’s that second link, which gives the definition of ho-wa as all right!!"
Navy too.
In The Warrior Elite : The Forging of Seal Class 228. It is very common. The author list a possible source as the victory cry of a former SEAL during volleyball matches.
Hubster joined the Army in 1968, retired in 1988. When we started watching the “Basic Training” series on The History Channel and all these 'cruits were hollering “HOO-AH,” I turned to him and said, “What’s THAT supposed to mean?”
His answer: “Damned if I know, never heard it before.”
I CRACKED up when they talked to the Civil Service Clerk at Finance about Insurance and signing up for the VEEP, and SHE was saying “HOO-AH” to these little kids, and they were echoing “HOO-AH” right back at her.
Seems almost like the “Okay?” “Okay!” dialogue exchange.
HOO-AH
~VOW
For whatever minuscule value it may have, my WAG on the great and ubiquitous ** WHOO-HA** is that it has its origins in professional 'rassling. After five years on active duty and time in the reserves, the first time I heard the noise was out of the mouth of the Governor of Minnesota. Also for what it is worth, in some units when a soldier was told to go do something and a gung-ho response was expected the soldier would sound off with the unit motto. Thus you had guys running around shouting things like “Brave Rifles” or “Swift and Sure” or “Hell on Wheels” or "Gerryowen"or “Black Lions” or some other motto, like Scottish clansmen setting to the onslaught screaming their clan slogan. On the other hand, troops in training units had no unit motto, unless they were going to shout something on the order of “United States Army Training Center and Fort Leonard Wood–This We Will Defend.” That’s not very satisfactory as a war cry and tends to leave the soldier too out of breath to spring into immediate action. In the absence of a legitimate unit motto to bellow as a display of eagerness some fan of Pro ‘Rassling fell on the war cry employed by steroid riddled mesomorphies as they beat each other about the head and shoulders with folding chairs. WHOO-HA yourself!
First time I heard it was in the movie Scent of a Woman. Al Pacino is a retired military man (Army?) who used it.
I never heard it in the Navy.
I first heard “OO-RAH!” four or five years ago when almost all my friends were Marines. Their drill instructors had fed them some crap about it being Turkish for ‘kill’. :rolleyes: Of course they believed it because they wanted to. But I did get the impression that it had been around for quite a few years. At least what quite a few years would be to a bunch of young’uns.
As mentioned before, it’s Army wide. When I first came in as a cadet, before earning my commission, the usage was explained to me on my first day:
Hooah means everything but “no.”
I’ve pretty much seen it used as that. Primary usage would be for “I’m doing great.” (In response to “So, how are you all doing today?”) or “Yes.” Other usages would be to mean high-speed (another Army term meaning someone who has their stuff squared away and is very enthusiastic about the military)…for instance: “Yeah, he think’s he’s all hooah.” Also worth noting is the sarcastic usage mentioned above, plus a few others. It’s a very versatile word!
Just to note, down here at Ft. Eustis (don’t know if it’s an Army-wide thing), they have “HooaH2O.” Yes, there exists hooah water…it “puts the hooah back in your day.”
Jman
Gov Ventura was a Navy SEAL, and I heard SEALs saying this (HOO-AHH) in 1986 at Little Creek, VA. I was Marine Corps bound at the time, and a group of us would reply with OOO-RAAH and then do pushups. I didn’t see much of the Army until 1989 at Ft Bliss, and they were not very motivated and didn’t make any noises.
Another take on this seeming UL is that it was Ghurka or Sikh for ‘KILL’. Going through Navy dive school in Panama City in 1985, OO-RAH seemingly replaced “aye-aye, sir!”, especially since we had 7 leathernecks in our class.
Ol’ Jessie was not a Navy Seal. He was in an underwater demolition outfit but most of the stuff he blew up was in Manila whorehouses. Whoo-Ha
Interesting hijack, Spavined Gelding. This site says he is.
And the Navy Special Warfare Command spokeswoman says he is:
Be nice, UncleBill. I did my basic training, AIT, and first duty assignment at Ft. Bliss (85-87) and we most certainly did make noise. AAMOF, there was a policy put out by the base commander that while running in formation before 0700 through residential areas that no cadence (or very soft cadence) was to be sung. Strangely enough there was a Marine barracks in the middle of our battalion barracks compound. I did indeed see them do a lot of pushups, but also a lot of silly stuff like turning over all the gravel (where normal units would have grass instead) by hand so the rocks could get an even suntan. Some sort of minor punishment I guess. See, we Army guys have our big toys to make noise with so we don’t have to yell as loud to make ourselves heard.
I was at Ft Bliss from Jan '89 to Mar '89, at HAWK and Stinger Schools. The jarheads you saw raking gravel were fresh out of Boot Camp, and that school maintained some of the Boot Camp mentality, i.e. staff holding inspections of the grounds, and if he found a cigarette butt, problems ensued for the class. They marched to classes and chow, did drill exercises, etc…
The Base CG put an editorial in the base paper (probably Feb 1989), where he said (and I paraphrase), the Marine Det was the only unit on his base that had an understanding of military courtesy. He was jogging in PT gear, and a young soldier in uniform recognized him and greeted him by rank and name, but did not salute. She did not know she was supposed to.
Maybe the base fell apart after you left.
HAWK, that was me too (also got a one week Stinger course later on when it was proven in combat against Russian planes). Didn’t know Marines trained with surface to air missiles of the HAWK size, although Stinger makes sense.
(Apologies for multi-layer hijack)
The USMC had two active duty HAWK Battalions stateside (Yuma, AZ and Cherry Pt, NC) and one Reinforced Battery in Okinawa up until about 1992. The two full battalions upgraded to PIP III (or Phase III), deployed to Desert Storm, then went home and were deactivated into the Reserves. My first job was Base Firing Platoon Commander. Spent most of my time with Stinger, though.
USMC: “OOH-rah!”
US Army: “HOO-ah!” or “HOO-rah!”
USAF: “OOH-rah!”
USN: Dunno.
I was in AFROTC my first three years in college (1990 through 1993 - I messed up the tendons in my legs and had to drop out of ROTC), and spent a lot of time on Bergstrom AFB both as a cadet and while I worked in one of the base stores. “OOH-rah” was quite common in the Air Force at the time (I was constantly hearing it on-base), and was interchangable with “OUTstanding!” as well as being used as “Yes, sir”, “Understood”, “Holy shit that’s cool” and “Damn right”. It was also shouted as a morale builder during PT.