# US Military Salute: Palm Out vs. Palm Horizontal

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-salute-palm-out-vs-palm-horizontal/579913>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 27, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-salute-palm-out-vs-palm-horizontal/579913 "2011-04-27T17:05:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![abel29a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@abel29a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abel29a)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-salute-palm-out-vs-palm-horizontal/579913/21 "2011-04-29T11:00:54Z")

</div>

> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#):
>
> Oddly, they do not mention the salute used in Arabic armies.
> 
> If uncovered and reporting to an officer, the subordinate comes to attention and gives an exaggerated should shrug. If I had a cite I would add to the article.

We do that one in Norway as well, if uncovered. The rule being, you never salute without some form of head gear on (which means you never salute indoors..).

Insted we do an exaggerated nod of the head - difficult to describe, and difficult to get right 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-salute-palm-out-vs-palm-horizontal/579913/22 "2011-04-29T22:47:58Z")

</div>

> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#):
>
> Learning to salute is, by the way, pretty tricky. The US salute is palm-down and for some reason people tend to not keep their writs straight. They throw up their arm any which way and then bend the wrist to bring the fingertip to the corner of the eye.
> 
> The wrist should be locked and the arm moved to position the hand correctly.

Tell that to John Kerry, who was a general. The Clintons we can forgive because neither was in the service.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-salute-palm-out-vs-palm-horizontal/579913/23 "2011-04-30T02:43:54Z")

</div>

> [@barbitu8](#):
>
> Tell that to John Kerry, who was a general. The Clintons we can forgive because neither was in the service.

😕 What the heck does this have to do with anything? (Besides, Kerry was a Lieutenant)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-salute-palm-out-vs-palm-horizontal/579913/24 "2011-04-30T07:57:49Z")

</div>

We didn’t lose in Vietnam, we just took all our weapons and went home 🙂

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-salute-palm-out-vs-palm-horizontal/579913.md?page=1)