Air Force, We Need to Work on This

I've been trying to find a Cub Scout pack for my son, which is not as easy as it sounds when you home-school!  You tend to miss all the neat-o reminders and such that go home in backpacks from the classroom.

However, I think I may have found a pack; and because I believe in full disclosure I let them know by email that I would not be very available for volunteer time this year while Air Force Guy is deployed and that I understood totally if this was an issue (can't do these things without volunteers, after all!). 

Proving once again that it is a small Air Force, the person who emailed me back let me know that they understood our situation totally, as they were an Air Force family themselves.  Well, cool!  And I felt this urge, this urge to say something that would bring us together, something that denoted a shared experience and a sisterhood.  Something like "Oorah" or "Hooah".  Something... But there wasn't anything to say.  The Air Force does not seem to have a club house password, and it can be a bit awkward at times.

Well, that's not entirely true.  Air Force people seem to say "Outstanding" a lot.  It's just not the same thing, though.  I've seen my Army brother hold entire conversations with people using only facial expressions and the grunts of "Huh and Hooah."  "Outstanding" just does not have the same breadth of expression.

Air Force, we need to work on this.

Comments

[Guard Guy's Gal]

I read part of this to Guard Guy (Air Guard), apparently "back in the day" the phrase use to be "Air Power!" We agreed it sounds kinda Scrappy Doo-ish.

[M]

I remember Air Power!

I also remember at one base the "battle cry" was Lightning Strikes and Thunder Rolls. That was really wierd...

[Guard Wife]

I remember asking you what the AF says when we were preparing to take the stage in Utah.

I'm sorry for giggling.

Truly.

[tsgt4me]

My USMC son told my AF Reserve husband that the AF password is "Not in the face, not in the face!"

[Army Mom x 3]

My Army kid say the AF password is "Aim High"....but that was after the AF LT put his weapon in the wrong vehicle [Army kid's] at the range [somewhere in the sandbox]and left in another vehicle...

[AF Guy]

Heard, Understood, and Acknowledged.....aka HUA. For any verbal order from a superior to be a legal order in must be Heard, Understood, and Acknowledged....HUA. It's not a "battle cry" it's a way of receiveing feedback from the troops when you give them an order.

[Delta Whiskey]

TOTALLY agree! Drives me nuts that we don't have a battle cry!

[giessermom]

I am giggling as my Army Guard Guy and my Army Kid do their hooah and my AF Kid and Navy Kid are pretty much quiet until the name calling starts... I have had to start setting up boundries regarding conversations about whose branch is the best when thay are all home otherwise you can't hear yourself think over the noise. I wish the AF and the Navy luck in finding their own password!

[Proud WAF]

As an AF veteran and spouse of retired AF vet and mother of 2 AF members with 25 years of Boy Scout experience from Den Leader to WoodBadge staff member, might I let everyone know that a call to Council Headquarters can help in these situations. Just look up Boy Scouts in the phone book. It's that easy! Personally I'm proud of the fact that the AF can communicate with words and not sounds. Inter-service rivalry aside we're all in the same Department of Defense!

[Devoted Warrior's Wife]

Oorah and Hooah come from services who have fought our country's battles for the last 200+ years. The AF is a mere 60+ years old. My suggestion is to actually spend time in the battlefield and not at a desk to develop one! Good Luck!