Police SWAT commanders calling for Police related Battle Cry… Goocha

Watching many military themed movies one is likely to hear the cool service specific motivational outburst. For the US Marines it is OORAH, in the Army they say HOOAH, and US Navy SEALs yell HOORAH. Working with some cops who are veterans you will also likely hear these battle cry terms.

Jack Walsh and Jonh Mardukas, local police SWAT team leaders, feel a little left out. They never served in the military. Many of their coworkers have. Meaning they hear these outcries, but are not able to reciprocate. So they are working to get a police officer battle cry.

Officer Walsh explains it like this. “We have all these guys yelling out in triumph at the end of doing a task or acknowledgment of an order. But the majority of our team was never in the service so they have this awkward look always. Add to that the confusion over why some people say OORAH, while most say HOOAH, and we had one dude who said HOORAH, but he quite the PD to go work for some military contractor making the big bucks.”

Officer Mardukas gave a shorter explanation. “It is about LEO [Law Enforcement Officer] unity. We are all a team. Does not matter if you are a city cop, county deputy, patrol, investigations, SWAT, K9 or any other specialty, we should have our own so-called war cry.”

The two explained a number of other options they tested out over beers while watching that old Al Pacino movie Heat one night. Mardukas slurred his speech when saying “Got You” during one intense moment during the film. That was the light bulb moment. They started to say “Got You” over and over with variations on emphasis. Eventually coming out sounding like they were saying “Got Ya”.

With a little more work they ended up settling on GOOCHA. Officer Walsh demonstrates by saying it a few times. When said aloud it comes out pronounced more like “go ch ah” with the “o” in go elongated. There is also a bit on an emphasis placed on “c” to almost fool a person in to thinking it was a “t” sound.

In the end the war cry GOOCHA does evoke that special members only phrasing that military versions do. Yet it also has the Law Enforcement feel do to sounding like the term “Got You”. Only time will tell if this catches on or not.