Who? Aha!
It’s been around for a while. I suspect it comes from the “do it!” part of a command. It must be sharp and short so the troops will execute the order simultaneously, having been alerted as to what they’re going to do by the first part. Examples:
Forward - MARCH!
Right - FACE!They get abbreviated to “Fooorrrdd - HARCH!” & “Rye - FA”
Eventually the second part of the order turned into a growl/grunt. That noise came to mean “DO IT”.
Posted by Oink
01/28/2006 at 08:30 AM
Uhhh, Skipper? The article is incorrect in it’s depiction of the word used by the Marine Corps ........................ it’s “OOH-rah!”, and has been in use since at LEAST 1977 {I’ll ask my spousal unit - he went through basic training a bit earlier than me} - we used it at PI .......................... sometime I’ll send you the story I heard of it’s origins, from a guy who claimed to be an Aussie, who had joined the U. S. Navy .......................... “HOOAH!” seems to be a recent phenomenon, developed by the Army, out of jealousy {sorry, Doggies!} for the cohesive effect “OOHrah!” has for Marines .......................
Semper Fi’Posted by Diamond Mair
01/28/2006 at 11:14 AM
I always hated it - thought it was like fads I saw [can we all say macarena?]. Don’t remember it at all until the last few years (30 years as a Army wife - toughest job in the Army). Any way probably made up by some Manhatten ad agency wimp who thought it oozed power and macho for the military types - you know like the current [& completely inappropriate] Army of One (yeah in what world).
Marines were saying “OOh-Rahh” since the Vietnam era. I was an Army Soldier going to an “integrated” military school (that’s Army and everyone else) and the Marines used to yell that at odd intervals, to themselves and to others way back in 1973. I’d “OOh-Rahh” the few Marines I was willing to hang out with and they’d do it back.
Grunts and Jarheads, we used to knock heads but when it came down to it, we respected them anyway. Maybe that is why the U S Military in general seems to have adopted it.
BTW-back in the day it was Soldiers or Grunts for U S Army (but the other branches of service called us Doggies). Navy guys were Squids, Marines were Jarheads, Air Force were Zoomies.Radar, as a former Marine, that’s why I used the term “Doggies” - on my part, it’s a term of endearment {BTW, back in the day, when my Dad was active duty, on into MY term in the Corps, Women Marines were referred to as “BAMs” - for “Broad A$$ed Marines” - in boot camp, we were told it stood for “Beautiful American Marines”
}
Semper Fi’
Diamond Mair {former BAM }
Posted by Diamond Mair
01/28/2006 at 04:41 PM
Mair: now the females are just ‘Marines’. Calling them BAMs was hazardous to your dental health. I never saw many Dogfaces whilst in the Corps; plenty of Swabbies, though.
Posted by Oink
01/28/2006 at 05:12 PM
