Complete nonsense.
I’m a Navy Captain, and I’ve never once ignored a salute from anyone. It would be completely rude to not return a salute, and I’ve never, ever seen a fellow Officer ignore a salute either. And if I did, I’d call him out.
And the urban legend of all ranks saluting a medal of honor awardees just won’t die. Nothing in the regulations require it, and I’ve never seen it.
Just to add to the clamor: I’m a retired Navy Chief of 23 years. In all that time I never saw an officer fail to return a salute. It’s hammered into them just like it was hammered into us in boot camp. I also saw enlisted guys who would go out of their way to avoid having to salute, and young officers who would go out of their way to demand a salute, usually to their detriment.
SanDiego Tim: saluting the sticker on a car is just assinine. I thought so then, and still do.
They teach the bit about the Medal of Honor in USAF Basic Training. It may be an urban legend, but it’s one that My training instructor believed enough to teach.
Given that I have personally been ignored by countless officers while saluting, I can say its rare but happens. Not every officer has the above Captain’s sense of honor.
Now, I’ve never been directly ignored. No officer ever made eye contact and disregarded my salute. Often they were distracted in conversation or possibly reading a report as they walked. The difference is that as an enlisted person I didn’t have the luxury of being able to claim distraction.
I should note that the Navy is the branch, that in my experience, was the most polite - never been ignored by a seaman. I imagine it take a whole lot of politeness to learn to live with so many people crammed onto a ship. While the USAF had the worst offenders.
I somehow found this kind of comical . . .
The actual rule is that you salute a superior officer when they approach within a distance of six to thirty paces. The salute is rendered at six paces, or the closest point of approach if greater than six paces. If the officer does not approach within thirty paces, you need not salute. In the case of a superior across the street, it technically depends on the width of the street, but better safe than sorry.
A rendered salute is also properly accompanied by a greeting.
There are also rules for saluting and greeting when overtaking a superior. In this case you salute as you pass and state, “By your leave, Sir [Ma’am].” The proper response from the superior is a return salute and permission to “Carry On.”
Although I see that **Bryan Ekers ** addressed this for the Canadian army, what’s the word on warrant officers in the US? When my father was in the Army (lo those many decades ago), he said that they rated “a salute a day.”
I was told by an Air Force officer that you learn to carry things in your left hand. That way, you keep your right hand free for saluting.
I never before thought about how incredibly annoying this must be. Good lord, if I was an admiral I’d never leave my house.
I definitely usually carry things in my left hand. The only time I don’t is when there’s no one around and my left arm is tired.
As far as the passing rule goes, I hate that one. I’ve never abided by it. I’ll just pass, pop off a salute, and say “Sir” as I’m passing. I don’t recall a junior ever even giving me any kind of acknowledgment as he/she passed. And I wouldn’t expect it–that’s a tradition that needs to die.
It can get annoying, especially when you’re at a joint job. You have to be able to figure out where the ranks are on several different uniforms from three other services. It’s not difficult, but if you’re trying to have a conversation with someone while you’re walking, it can get distracting when there’s a lot of folks around.
When I was in the Marine Corps we were taught to salute an officer the first time you see them in the day, and as farewell for the night when they were leaving (in garrison obviously). It would be ridiculous to salute the same officer a dozen or more times a day if were were working closely with them.
Does any service require saluting left handed?
When I was a young airman, our whole office would walk together to the chow hall for lunch. When we saw an officer, someone would say “spread out,” and we would walk just far enough apart that we would each get a salute, rather than just one long one. Looking back, yes, that must have been annoying for the poor officer.
The real fun (as has been pointed out upthread) is watching two junior/middle ranking officers in different services approaching each other and trying to figure out who throws up a salute first.
let me see, one thick, one thin ring vs three pips on the epaulet…
Fortuntaly, for most of our uniforms, all the services wear the same collar devices, at least in the Officer ranks.
Unfortunately, rank is not always on the collar, and in the Navy, all you may have is rank on the sleeve, which doesn’t match up to any other service (aside from the CG).
flyboy: The Navy Commissioned Officer’s insignia also match up to the USPHS and NOAA Commissioned Corps.
To make it even more entertaining, Navy E7-E9 ranks wear the same dress uniform as the officers. If, like me, you were a Chief with 20 years of service, all of it with good conduct, everything on the left sleeve was in gold (five hash stripes plus the CPO rockers and eagle). It looks impressive and I had folks from other services mistakenly salute me.
Not so. I think you’re forgetting the Army PT uniform, for one. Also, if you’re on a work site where you’re “indoors” but not really, you’ll sometimes wear a hat but no blouse. Sometimes there’s no saluting there.
Commander’s discretion, usually.
For clarity, Alessan is (more or less) joking here.
Coupla different things:
It seems to me that you Navy folk were all taught that a return salute is mandatory. In the Army, this is certainly not the case. So…cite for the Navy reg?
When there’s a group of officers, you have to salute the highest one. This is not easy to figure out when there’s about 5 headed to lunch and you have to find the highest ranking one quickly. If all these regs sound confusing to you civilians, remember- unlike in the movies, the military isn’t made up of dickheads. No one’s going to yell at you after an effort made in good faith.
The Army also requires a greeting, but it’s not “By your leave.” The books instruct you to say “Good morning/afternoon/evening, Sir/ma’am” but you can pretty much just say whatever you’d say in “real life” to someone you were greeting. This includes “Hooah, sir”, “Ma’am…” or whatever. A long time ago in a batallion far, far away, the greeting was “By force and valor, sir” to which they’d reply “Dragoons!”
What do you do in that instance? Do you just return the salute?
I had traveled over to the Army camp area with one or two other Jarheads, and like I said, when in Rome, adapt to the standards of the present company if it is not illegal/disagreeable. We knew the Marine system, but we were visiting an Army location. I apparently saluted with enough disdain that it kept my guys in stitches on the way back to the 2nd MarDiv area.
The Navy requires the same greeting when an officer and an enlisted face each other. The “by your leave” thing is only for when an enlisted is overtaking an officer from behind. Supposedly, the enlisted is not allowed to pass the officer until the salute is returned and permission granted. In practice, though, I’ve rarely seen it used except in boot camp and training schools.