The Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles ("International Association of Turtles", "Turtle Club" or similar title) started as an informal "drinking club" between American World War II pilots, for humor and camaraderie. Any member who was asked "Are you a Turtle?" needed to reply, loudly, "You bet your sweet ass I am", or buy the questioner a drink.

History

The Order of Turtles began as a drinking club formed by WWII pilots for humorous reasons, as well as camaraderie.

Qualifying questions

To gain admission, one must correctly answer usually three or four questions from a list, each of which suggests a vulgar, lewd, or salacious answer, but the correct answer is innocuous. Later, on board the recovery ship , in front of Slayton, Walt Williams and the other astronauts, Walt Williams demanded to know how Schirra replied to Deke's question. Schirra played the recorder. "Hey, Wally, are you a turtle?" followed by the proper response, "YBYSAIA".

In 1968, on the Apollo 7 mission, during seven telecasts which were the first video broadcasts from a spacecraft, Schirra instead asked Slayton, through the capcom, whether he was a turtle. The Smithsonian owns a turtle membership card changed to call the organization the "Interstellar Association of Turtles: Outershell Division" signed by Wally Schirra and TRW employee Gerry Morton.

  • In the 1975 three-novel collection The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, references to the order are made various times including this one involving Lady Velkor: "Lady Velkor, wearing a green peasant blouse and green hotpants, looked around the geodesic KoolAid dome. A man in a green turtleneck sweater and green slacks caught her eye, and she walked over to him, asking, "Are you a turtle?" "You bet your sweet ass I am," he answered eagerly and so she had failed to make contact— and owed this oaf a free drink also. But she smiled pleasantly and concealed her annoyance."
  • In the 1997 novel Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut tells John Hickenlooper (son of one of Vonnegut's fraternity brothers) of their asking for the password during "solemn and sacred occasion[s], such as the swearing in of new fraternity brothers."
  • In the 2002 film Master of Disguise starring Dana Carvey, he says in a scene, "Am I not turtley enough for the turtle club?"
  • On Dick Whittinghill's radio show on KMPC in Los Angeles, one of his recurring gags was a sound bite of someone asking, "Are you a turtle?"

References

  • Phoenix Masonry Masonic Museum on Turtles
  • Turtle Club Us