Oorah (Marines)

Last updated July 31, 2019

Oorah is a battle cry common in the United States Marine Corps since the mid-20th century. It is comparable to Hooah in the United States Army and the United States Air Force, and Hooyah in the United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard.

A battle cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same combatant group. Battle cries are not necessarily articulate, although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religious sentiment. Their purpose is a combination of arousing aggression and esprit de corps on one's own side and causing intimidation on the hostile side. Battle cries are a universal form of display behaviour aiming at competitive advantage, ideally by overstating one's own aggressive potential to a point where the enemy prefers to avoid confrontation altogether and opts to flee. In order to overstate one's potential for aggression, battle cries need to be as loud as possible, and have historically often been amplified by acoustic devices such as horns, drums, conches, carnyxes, bagpipes, bugles, etc..

The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations with the United States Navy as well as the Army and Air Force. The U.S. Marine Corps is one of the four armed service branches in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States.

Hooah is a battle cry used by soldiers in the U.S. Army and airmen in the U.S. Air Force. Originally spelled "Hough", the battle cry was first used by members of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment during the Second Seminole War in 1841, after Seminole chief Coacoochee toasted officers of the regiment with a loud "Hough!", apparently a corruption of "How d'ye do!" Since WWII, the word has been widely used throughout the US Army and gained a more general meaning of "anything and everything except 'no'". It is comparable to Oorah in the United States Marine Corps, and Hooyah in the United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard.

Origins

There are several potential sources from which the word "oorah" originated.

Turkic/Mongolian:
- The term may have been derived from the Ottoman Turkish phrase "vur ha" translated as "strike" or the Mongolian word "urakh" meaning "forward". It was used as a battle cry of the Ottoman Empire army and adapted as a Russian battle cry "ura".^[1]
- According to Jean Paul Roux the word "Hurrah" comes from Old Turkic, in use until medieval times. In his book, History of Turks he states: "For example, while attacking to their enemies, they (Turks) used to shout "Ur Ah!" which means "Come on, hit!" (in modern Turkish "Vur Hadi!") Then this exclamation turned into "Hurrah!" in [the] West... The difference represents diachronic change in the phonology and verbal usage in Turkish. The verb for "to hit" or "to strike" was urmak, which became vurmak in Modern Turkish. Moreover, a former subjunctive imperative verbal ending of e/a is not productive in Modern Turkish. Therefore, "ura", meaning "may it hit", which would have changed phonetically to "vura" in Modern Turkish, is expressed with "vursun".
- The term may have come from warriors of Ancient Hun or of Mongolian Empire "hurray" meaning "to move attack" or "appeal for goodness", which was formed into "(h)urra" in Russian with same meaning, and from which the Mongolia "Uria" (callings or slogans) comes from. "Hurray and Uria" words are used today in Mongolia from the ancient soldiers.
- Jack Weatherford asserts that it comes from the Mongolian "hurree", used by Mongol armies and spread throughout the world during the Mongol Empire of the 13th century, but he does not appear to present any supporting evidence. Weatherford says that in Mongolian "hurree" is a sacred praise much like amen or hallelujah.
Germanic:
- The term may have come from Middle High German of 1580–1590 "hurren" meaning "to move fast", which was formed into "hurra" and from which the English "hurry" comes. It is still used in the Netherlands during celebrations in the form of "hoera", as well as in Sweden, Norway and Denmark as "hurra".
The term may be a variation of 18th century sailors exclamation "huzzah", traditionally said during salutes.
In World War II injured US Marines were treated in northern Australia. The term 'Ooh Rah' is said to be local slang for 'farewell' or 'until then',^[2] although it is likely to be a mishearing of the more common 'ooroo'.^[3]
The 1st Amphibious Reconnaissance Company, FMFPAC can be credited with the introduction of "Ooh-rah!" into the Marine Corps in 1953, shortly after the Korean War.^{[ citation needed ]} Recon Marines served aboard the USS Perch (ASSP-313), a WWII–era diesel submarine retrofitted to carry Navy Underwater Demolition Teams and Recon Marines. Whenever the boat was to dive, the 1MC (PA system) would announce "DIVE! DIVE!", followed by the sound of the diving klaxon: "AHUGA!" In 1953 or 1954, while on a conditioning run, former Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps John R. Massaro, while serving as company Gunnery Sergeant of 1st Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion, simulated the "Dive" horn sound "AHUGA!" as part of the cadence. Legend has it, he took it with him when he went to serve as an instructor at the Drill Instructor school at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. He there passed it on to the Drill Instructor students and they, in turn, passed it on to their recruits where it eventually and naturally became a part of the Recon cadence, and thereafter infiltrated Recon Marine lexicon.^[4] Over time, "AHUGA!" morphed into the shorter, simpler "Ooh Rah!" Today, the official Marine Corps Training Reference Manual on the history of Marine Recon is titled "AHUGA!"

Ottoman Turkish, or the Ottoman language, is the variety of the Turkish language that was used in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian, and it was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. During the peak of Ottoman power, words of foreign origin heavily outnumbered native Turkish words, with Arabic and Persian vocabulary accounting for up to 88% of the Ottoman vocabulary.

Mongolian language language spoken in Mongolia

The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and both the most widely-spoken and best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In Mongolia, the Khalkha dialect, written in Cyrillic, is predominant, while in Inner Mongolia, the language is dialectally more diverse and is written in the traditional Mongolian script. In the discussion of grammar to follow, the variety of Mongolian treated is Standard Khalkha Mongolian, but much of what is to be said is also valid for vernacular (spoken) Khalkha and for other Mongolian dialects, especially Chakhar.

The Ottoman Empire, historically known to its inhabitants and the Eastern world as Rome (Rûm), and historically known in Western Europe as the Turkish Empire or simply Turkey, was a state that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman I. Although initially the dynasty was of Turkic origin, it was Persianised to some extent in terms of language, culture, and literature. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror.

Other uses

"Hoorah" is also used by United States Navy Hospital Corpsmen, Masters-at-Arms, and Seabees because of their close association with the Marine Corps.
"Urra" or "Hura", often mistaken for "Ura", is the battle cry of the Russian Armed Forces, as well the Soviet Armed Forces and Red Army that preceded it. Its usage dates back to the Medieval era, derived from the Mongolian phrase hurray, meaning "to move" or "to attack". Mostly used during World War II, it is still used during military parades and Victory Day celebrations by all branches of the Russian military as well as most armed forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States and in the Bulgarian Armed Forces. It was and is also used as a patriotic phrase denoting respect to the military as well as the country itself.
"Rah" is a shortened form of the word, typically said in greeting or in agreement, used in a more casual tone.

United States Navy Naval warfare branch of the United States Armed Forces

The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most capable navy in the world and it has been estimated that in terms of tonnage of its active battle fleet alone, it is larger than the next 13 navies combined, which includes 11 U.S. allies or partner nations. With the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, and two new carriers under construction. With 319,421 personnel on active duty and 99,616 in the Ready Reserve, the U.S. Navy is the third largest of the U.S. military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 282 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of March 2018, making it the third-largest air force in the world, after the United States Air Force and the United States Army.

A Master-at-Arms may be a naval rating, responsible for law enforcement, regulating duties, security, Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection (AT/FP); an army officer responsible for physical training; or a member of the crew of a merchant ship responsible for security and law enforcement. In some navies, a "ship's corporal" is a position—not the rank—of a petty officer who assists the master-at-arms in his various duties. Historically, a master-at-arms was responsible for the training of soldiers during in peace time, or actively involved in leading the defense of a fortification during war time.

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly known as the Russian Armed Forces are the military forces of the Russian Federation, established after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. On 7 May 1992, Boris Yeltsin signed a presidential decree establishing the Russian Ministry of Defence and placing all Soviet Armed Forces troops on the territory of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic under Russian control. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is the President of Russia. The Russian Armed Forces were formed in 1992. The Russian Armed Forces is one of the world's largest military forces. It is also the world's second most powerful military and the world's second largest arms exporter.

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References

↑ "A Little Marine Corps History". National Headquarters. Marine Corps League. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
↑ "Hooah - Origins of the Term in the U.S. Military". archive.org. 4 March 2016.
↑ "ABC NewsRadio: wordwatch, Hooroo". archive.org. 31 July 2014.
↑ "From one era to another..." Force Recon Association. Retrieved 2009-02-13.

External links

Gaines, R.W. "Dick". "OOHRAH, and other things that go bump in the night..." Gunny G's GLOBE and ANCHOR. Retrieved 2009-02-13.

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[1] "A Little Marine Corps History". National Headquarters. Marine Corps League. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 2009-02-13.

[2] "Hooah - Origins of the Term in the U.S. Military". archive.org. 4 March 2016.

[3] "ABC NewsRadio: wordwatch, Hooroo". archive.org. 31 July 2014.

[4] "From one era to another..." Force Recon Association. Retrieved 2009-02-13.