Hooah is a battle cry used by soldiers in the U.S. Army, airmen in the U.S. Air Force, and Guardians in the U.S. Space 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 which the United States Marine Corps uses. The United States Navy uses hooyah as well as United States Coast Guard. The phrase originated with Ranger Battalions and in the late eighties was considered a trait of those units. Beginning in the early nineties it gradually spread across Fort Lewis, Washington and Fort Benning, Georgia, the home bases for the three Ranger battalions at the time. By the mid nineties the phrase was in common usage across the Army.
