It is my understanding that enlisted personnel must stand at attention when being addressed by an officer. However, are there any instances in which an officer must stand at attention for another officer?
I ask because in some movies, like Top Gun, Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards (Maverick and Goose, respectively), stood at attention when being addressed by their commander. Cruise and Edwards were both lieutenants.
Yet, in A Few Good Men, Tom Cruise, playing a lieutenant yet again, is addressed by Jack Nicholson, who is a colonel in the Marines. Cruise does not stand at attention and speaks very casual with him.
So, I’m wondering, what situations are there where an officer would need to stand at attention for another officer?
If you both are walking down the street you don’t have to. The junior pops a salute to the senior, and both go on their seperate ways.
Typically, you would only come to attention if in formation or you are just standing around. My boss came to visit me on my most recent job site, and I was standing there covered in mud and drywall spackle, but I still came to attention and popped a salute.
In A Few Good Men, that was a courtroom scene. You typically wouldn’t come to attention in that sort of environment. Now, if Tom Cruise went into Jack’s office to get his ass chewed out, he would have snapped to attention and let Jack tear him up.
You normally would stand up for “the boss”, ie, the full Colonel or Brig General in charge of your area. You wouldn’t stand up for another Lt Col or Major in your shop, even if you were just a Captain. Nervous Lieutenants tend to jump up randomly.
Also, once an equal ranking officer is in the room, you wouldn’t stand up for another senior officer of equal rank. If you’re a Captain in a room with a Colonel, you don’t stand up if another Colonel comes in, but you do stand up if the General comes in.