Oorah is abattle cry common in theUnited States Marine Corps since the mid-20th century.
Several anecdotes attributed the phrase toJohn R. Massaro's time as agunnery sergeant in theReconnaissance Company,1st Marine Division, in the mid-1950s.[1][2] Massaro (who later becamesergeant major of the Marine Corps) and other Marines who trained aboard the submarineUSS Perch, beginning in 1949, usedoorah in imitation of the vessel'sklaxon horn (which sounded likearrugha).[1][3] Others have attributed the phrase's popularization to Massaro's subsequent time atMarine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, where use of the word spread.[1]
Massaro has said that he did not originate the word (saying in 2015: "It was a phrase or a term originally coming from boarding a ship") and that the word was already in use in 1949.[1]
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