It comes up occasionally in my trade. The Canadian Forces School of Communications and Electronics at Kingston, Ontario, was commanded by a British Major the last time I was there (probably still is - I got the impression it was a tradition of some sort) whose rank was indicated by a crown design, nearly identical to the one worn by Warrant Officers (who are not saluted) in the Canadian Army.
Are there rules on how often you have to salute the same person? Say you’re on duty with an officer - presumably you’ll leave each other’s company and return occasionally during your watch - do you salute him each time that happens, or does the salute at the beginning of your shift cover you for the whole time?
What about if one’s hands are full - can you skip the salute then? And if it’s raining, can one salute from under an umbrella?
–SMM
Onboard an underway Navy vessel, all salutes are considered rendered at Quarters. Still though, enlisted have to come to attention when approached by the Skipper or some high-ranking officer.
If your hands are legitimately full, or if your arm is obviously immobilized, you can skip the salute. I don’t remember about the umbrella, but if memory serves, you still salute.
I’m a Commander in the Navy, and when I’ve walked past enlisted members of the Navy who had their hands full, by and large they have gone out of their way to be very gracious and say “Good afternoon, Sir!”, or they have made an effort to move what they were carrying into their left hand so they could salute. I will render a salute in return for any sailor who makes the effort as above (even without a salute because his or her hands are full). I don’t worry about getting a salute if the sailor is legitimately busy (i.e., hands full, or in a working party), but if there was a situation where I thought I was being ignored, I would address the sailor about it. In 17+ years in the military, I haven’t come across that situation.
I believe there is one (unusual) situation where an officer is required to salute an enlisted man first. If the enlisted man is a recipient of the Medal of Honor then everybody (General, Admiral, whatever) is required to salute him. At least that’s what I’ve read and it seems fair.
Yet another US Navy PDF link. Check out Section 3 of Chapter 12.
Aren’t salutes of all kinds prohibited if there’s any chance that the enemy might be in the area? Could an enlisted man be court martialled for saluting somebody if he (deliberately or negligently) put the addressee in danger of a sniper’s bullet?
Officers are pretty easy to spot in the field, salutes or not: they’re the guys next to the guys with the antennas. The more antennas, the higher ranking the officer.
I have seen quite a few videos and clips of meetings between enemy officers and they have saluted each other.
Seems almost like professional coutesey.
As a rule, Marines don’t salute “in the field”, either on exercises or operations. Apparently the Army does. During Desert Shield/Storm we had an Army unit attached to the 2nd Marine Division, and I was over at their place, and an assholish Captain was upset I hadn’t. I did, (when in Rome…) and either muttered softly or thought really loudly, “Sniper Check!”
Why’d you give in? You should have continued not saluting him, and if he gave you shit told him to take it up with *your *Captain.
(That wasn’t meant as criticism - I’m just trying to understand how the U.S. military thinks.)
I’m not Uncle Bill, but from my own experience, it’s easier to give in than it is to start an argument. Even if you win, it’s not worth it if the officer can make your life miserable in other ways. So it’s easier to say, “Yes, sir!” than it is to say, “Take it up with my captain, douchebag!”
Since when? That’s completely disrespectful. I ETS’d back in '96, so it’s been a while, but at that time, it was an requirement that officers return the salute. Salutes are for showing mutual respect, not for kow-towing before a superior.
Just to clarify…the salute is actually rendered to the sticker, not the car and/or the occupant(s). At least this is what was the custom when I was at Camp Pendleton in '69.
My stepson is in the Coast Guard, and the enlisted uniform looks a little like a Navy officer’s uniform. When he went through advanced training, he was at a school where all the branches attended. He was often embarrassed by being saluted.
Officers are not required to return the salute - even to lower ranking officers.
Having spent my time in the military, at a EUCOM base around all branches and several different nationalities, I’ve never heard a salute being “mutual” in terms of respect. It’s about respect and acknowledgement of superiors and then their respect of your acknowledgement. You’ll never see an officer salute an enlisted man first if the enlisted man misses the salute. (Yes, an enlisted man wearing the medal of honor may be saluted first - key word is “wearing”). Maybe mutual as long as mutual has no correlation to equal. I can easily say that 5-10% of officers did not return the salute.
And Navy Uniforms suck. The NCO’s have a brass pin in their hat in the exact same spot as every other branch wears their officer insignia. By the time you’re close enough to see if the cap has trim or actually make out the insignia, you have to get that salute in fast.
You got it. I was a Navy officer, and you are absolutely obligated to return a salute.
I was at a training command once where a newly commissioned Ensign (O-1) inexplicably blew off the return salute when saluted by a passing enlisted student. After the student passed out of earshot, I and the other lieutenant I was walking with proceeded to ream the ensign out.
(We called over to the Ensign; when he approached, he saluted us. My comment to him at that point was “Oh, so they did teach you how to salute.” :rolleyes: We then made it quite clear to the ensign that failing to return a salute was not at all optional.)
On rare occasions, you might pass a superior officer who fails to notice your salute, for whatever reason. (Maybe he or she is across the street, for instance.) In such a case, per protocol, you hold the salute until you pass him or her. However, deliberately ignoring the salute of a junior is not at all acceptable.
One more anecdote: when I was a newly commissioned officer at Nuclear Power School, I occasionally had to walk by a few hundred enlisted students I was out between class changes. You ended up walking the whole distance returning a hundred or so salutes, or just holding the return salute continuously. That got old in a hurry. After that happened to me once or twice, I learned the enlisted class schedule to avoid trips outside during class changes. Again, returning a salute is not optional.