Eisenhower also resigned from the Army, at the time he declared his candidacy in 1952, IIRC. He was later restored to the reserve ranks as a five-star general after leaving the White House.
I’m not crazy about Presidents returning hand salutes. I think Reagan was the first to regularly do it, and others since have felt almost obligated to do so. The President is CINC but a civilian, in a republic in which civilian control of the military is a bedrock constitutional principle, and anything that blurs that line is not a good thing, IMHO.
Don’t forget PT. Soldiers don’t wear any rank during PT, but usually you know who the officers in your unit are, and are required to salute them even without headgear.
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, ok. That was a plot along the lines of “Go find me a yard of flightline”. It played out kind of like this:
“Dude! There’s another jerk of a boot ensign! Drop back, drop back!” And suddenly that group of 12 walking together became a 200’ line of “Salute me back, asshole”. Didn’t you ever notice how cheerful the enlisteds were? They only had to do it once, after all…
I read somewhere that a recipient of the nation’s highest medal, the Medal of Honor, is entitled to be saluted first, even by higher-ranking officers. Anyone know if this is true?
What about in other countries? I’m thinking that as the embodiment of the UK QEII salutes no one, but what about the PM and [pulls from ass] the Victoria Medal?
U.S. Navy sailors do not salute in PT gear. They only salute when in uniform and covered (wearing headgear). PT gear is not a uniform.
Members of a working party do not stop to salute, either, even if in uniform and covered. If a supervisor was standing around supervising, however, the supervisor would salute.
The supervisor thing is same in the Army. But man… PTs? The Army Physical Fitness Uniform is most definitely a uniform and soldiers must exchange salutes while wearing it.
Wow, that’s interesting.
I would like to know for sure, myself. I hear this stated as fact all the time, I’ve seen it written in study guides and in articles and all kinds of “unofficial places” but none of them ever give the source. I simply CANNOT find anything that says this is a rule. Anywhere.
I have checked 10 USC 3741, AR 600-8-22, and AR 600-25. If it’s a rule, it should be in one of those.
I do believe it is the case that soldiers must salute the Medal of Honor. However, it’s interesting that the only place I can find the “rule” is random unofficial articles and studyguides.
So… can anyone actually find a CITE that a soldier must salute the Medal of Honor or its recipient?
Absolutely all right. Absolute bull.
This come up time to time, and it’s urban legend. The medal of honor has no bearing on saluting what so ever. I even mentioned to this an Assistant Secretary of the Navy who has the medal of honor. He said that he’d heard it from time to time, and thought it was funny, but nonsense.
One night way back in the day, a group of sailors were departing their ship on a Navy base for some libbo. The Shore Patrol stops them and gives them an earful about the state of their unkempt clothes. The SP, who’s studying to be a dickhead first class, makes them go back to their ship to don their dress uniform prior to allowing them off base. When they return, one member of the liberty party is sporting his MOH. The MOH recipient explains to the stunned SP that salutes are required and, further, it is customary for the base CO to greet, and salute, any MOH recipient who arrives on the base. He explains to the SP that he’ll be back around 0400, and looks forward to meeting the base CO. Off he goes for a night on the town, leaving the SP wondering how he’ll explain this one to the base Captain.
It’s an amusing story. Pure UL, but amusing nonetheless.
So, just idly wondering, given that someone said soldiers in PT gear (without hats) do salute officers they recognize, is the ‘only salute while wearing a hat’ thing really a strict rule regarding actual hats, or does ‘hat’ in this case really mean ‘actual uniform weather or not part of it is atop your head at the time’.
For instance, would one salute if one were in uniform, but not wearing the hat for a duty-related reason? (Such as, umm… wearing face protection or breathing apparatus, or receiving a haircut). I suppose the interior of vehicles are not considered outside?
I know that the British armed services each has a different salute, but how does each go, and why are they different?
Back in WWII, the Army Air Corps (way before it became a separate Air Force) definitely had different salutes from any other service. I can only describe it as “casual” and “distinctive.”
Officers often returned the salute with just one finger (no, not that finger), raisting it to their caps, then sort of throwing it away toward the saluter and on down. Vast difference in technique, but probably as sloppy saluting as ever seen in any military (if it could be called that) organization throughout history.
Most Air Corps personnel pretty much ignored military tradition, especially aviators. They took the grommets out of their hats and crushed them as much as possible, and individually modified their uniforms, enough to give MPs the willies, I suppose. I never heard of anybody ever being chewed out for this behavior.
In part it may have been the youth of many officers. A 20-year old Major or even a Lt Colonel was not that rare. It was more like a big flying club than a military outfit. I loved it.
The Queen doesn’t salute out of uniform (She holds various military ranks, and served in uniform in WWII). She will acknowledge a regiment’s colours though, with a nod of the head when they’re trooped past her.
The PM is a civilian, and like all British civilians doesn’t salute anyone or anything.
Victoria Cross recipients are so few and far between (there’s about 13 living at the moment throughout the Commonwealth), that I don’t think the situation arises too much.
In the U.S. Navy, you only salute when wearing an actual cover.
Vehicles are tricky, because officers’ vehicles get saluted when entering bases. Drivers are not obligated return a salute if it would impair their driving, nor are covers required when driving or riding in a vehicle.
When I drove onto a base in uniform, even though I was not obligated to do so, I put on my cover before entering the base so that I could return the salute. If I drove onto a base in civilian clothes, I would still get saluted (because of my vehicle sticker), so I just kind of waved back to acknowledge the guard, at least.
My stepfather was in the U.S. Army and always saluted back when driving onto military bases, whether or not he was covered or even in uniform, for that matter. Every branch of the military is different, you see.
