# US military salute question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2009, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-salute-question/520183 "2009-12-06T10:55:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-salute-question/520183/141 "2009-12-12T13:54:42Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > It is actually in substance (if not form) quite similar to the old British and commonwealth system. Officers werr brought in to the regiments but they were not given any real responsibility for a couple of years, while they learnt soldiering. > > The system is incidentally highly admirable, though I wonder if it does not place too much responsibility of junior officers, the lack of NCO’s to share the burden must tell at times. That makes sense - the IDF was, to a large degree, an amalgamation of the British system and the various pre-state militias. As for whether it’s too much responsibility for junior officers - remember that they already have some command experience as squad leaders. In addition, new officers are rarely put in charge of experienced units, but instead are given platoons of fresh recruits to train; at the same time they’re teaching them how to be soldiers, they’re also learning how to be officers. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-salute-question/520183/142 "2013-01-09T00:27:25Z")
Reviving a zombie thread… There was earlier discussion as to whether or not salutes had to be returned. I recently saw Buster Keaton in _The General_, which humorously addresses the point. Go to 1:14:13 here: [- YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilPk-SCHv30) Also, James Bissland in _Blood, Tears & Glory: How Ohioans Won the Civil War_, quotes a Massachusetts soldier visiting Washington, D.C. who wrote, “Officers in tinsel and gold lace were so thick [along] Pennsylvania Avenue that it was a severe trial for a private to walk there… [my] right arm grew weary from constant saluting.” ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-salute-question/520183/143 "2013-01-09T08:15:25Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Reviving a zombie thread… > > There was earlier discussion as to whether or not salutes had to be returned. I recently saw Buster Keaton in _The General_, which humorously addresses the point. Go to 1:14:13 here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilPk-SCHv30](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilPk-SCHv30) > > Also, James Bissland in _Blood, Tears & Glory: How Ohioans Won the Civil War_, quotes a Massachusetts soldier visiting Washington, D.C. who wrote, “Officers in tinsel and gold lace were so thick [along] Pennsylvania Avenue that it was a severe trial for a private to walk there… [my] right arm grew weary from constant saluting.” Zombie thread, indeed. This reminds me of a [Chesty Puller story](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesty_Puller#Puller_in_U.S._Marine_Corps_culture). Quoting from that page: _‘Puller is loved by enlisted U.S. Marines for his constant actions to improve their working conditions. Puller insisted upon good equipment and discipline; once he came upon a second lieutenant who had ordered an enlisted man to salute him 100 times for missing a salute. Puller told the lieutenant, “You were absolutely correct in making him salute you 100 times lieutenant, but you know that an officer must return every salute he receives. Now return them all, and I will keep count.”’_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-military-salute-question/520183.md?page=7)