Hooah

Hooah (pronounced /ˈhuːˌɑː/) is a U.S. Army battle cry. It is used by US Army soldiers "Referring to or meaning anything and everything except no."

• Air Force: "Hooah," among Security Forces, Combat Controllers or "Hooyah" among Pararescue

Usage

Other popular usages of hooah include:

• "Heard, understood and acknowledged" (backronym as "HUA")
• What to say when at a loss for words
• "Good copy"
• "Roger," "solid copy," "good," "great," "message received," "understood," "acknowledged"
• "Glad to meet you," "welcome"
• "All right!"
• "Thank you"
• "Go to the next slide"
• "You've taken the correct action"
• "Amen!"
• "Nice penis."
• "Outstanding!"
• "That's cool" or "that's OK." As in, "That's hooah."
• To motivate another soldier.
• Anything and everything except "no."
• "Screw You!" or "Whatever" (when directed toward a superior ranking person)

Hooah can also:

• describe a hardcore soldier. As in, "He's hooah" or "She's hooah."
• be used a call and response cheer, with one soldier exclaiming, "hooah!," and other soldiers responding in like.
• be uttered at random and in a group in order to boost morale. One or a few soldiers will begin chanting "hooah!," and then others join in. The chant is like a pack of wolves howling together.
• describe Army Rangers. As in "The hooah-hooahs."
• be used as a sarcastic remark for something specific to the Army. Sometimes used sarcastically. As in, "This detail is about as hoo-ah as it gets."

In popular culture

• "Hooah" can be found in the scripts of several military-related movies. One well-known example is Al Pacino's character, a former U.S. Army officer, in the movie Scent of a Woman (which may have popularized the longer "Hoo-Ah" version). "Hooah" also features prominently in Black Hawk Down, which depicts United States Army Rangers at the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia and Lions for Lambs a film about the war in Afghanistan. In Basic, Samuel L. Jackson's character finishes each line of his training briefings with "Give me a 'Hooah', Sergeant!".
• Used as the meaning of "Heard Understood Acknowledged" by private young soldiers in the movie Renaissance Man from 1994.
• In the episode "Semper Fidelis" of the TV series Jericho, former US Army Ranger Johnston Green realizes that a detachment of "US Marines" are imposters because they use the word "hooah". Genuine Marines would have said "Oorah" instead.
• The GI unit in Red Alert 2 sometimes says "hooah" in response to an order by the player.
• It is also used in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.
• The computer game America's Army makes frequent use of the phrase, and pressing the H key on the keyboard in version 2 or below would make the player's character shout "Hooah" over the radio to other members of the player's team, sometimes eliciting a series of "Hooahs" in reply.

See also

• Oorah - The United States Marine Corps equivalent and United States Coast Guard
• Hooyah - The United States Navy equivalent
• HOOAH! Bar - a US military energy bar
• Ahroo and Hooah - The United States Air Force equivalent

External links

• About.com article with ideas about Hooah's etymology
• About.com article with some possible definitions
• Hooah uttered at the end of the re-enlistment oath, Baghdad, July 4th, 2008: at time 1:08 on the video clip