military salute

[wyliec]

There is a thread in the General Discussion concerning the military and Veterans, and I'm wondering about the salute. I started off in the Navy, and we were taught to salute with fingers at temple, actually the middle finger which is longest touched the temple. Also, in the Navy, when I was in, you did not salute if uncovered, you came to attention; that's Navy only. I watched that video from the General Discussion, and wondered where they learned to salute. Then, I thought that maybe the different branches saluted differently. Can someone presently in the military or in the past answer. And, yes, I know that some may answer- it's not how you salute, but that you salute. I'm just curious.

 

[vided]

There is a thread in the General Discussion concerning the military and Veterans, and I'm wondering about the salute. I started off in the Navy, and we were taught to salute with fingers at temple, actually the middle finger which is longest touched the temple. Also, in the Navy, when I was in, you did not salute if uncovered, you came to attention; that's Navy only. I watched that video from the General Discussion, and wondered where they learned to salute. Then, I thought that maybe the different branches saluted differently. Can someone presently in the military or in the past answer. And, yes, I know that some may answer- it's not how you salute, but that you salute. I'm just curious.

Coast Guard was the same.
if i remember correctly, you were uncovered when indoors and did not salute.
made it interesting at airports.

I salute you all now :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[jerpinoy]

I've been USN retired since 1993 and I've seen many changes. The best part I like is "We served together" despite of diversities.

 

[lizmcg]

USMC 1976-1996. We were taught to salute with the longest finger just touching the end of the eyebrow, fingers together and straight with the hand, thumb at the side and touching. You were uncovered indoors (unless armed) and did not salute uncovered. I assume it hasn't changed. That's the Sea Services, though; Army/Air Force may be different.

 

[JerryB]

Hi lizmcg,

Re: We were taught to salute with the longest finger just touching the end of the eyebrow, fingers together and straight with the hand, thumb at the side and touching.

USAF '59-'63 - This what we were taught also.

A favorite memory. The Air Force was rather well known for being rather laid back. In the summer of '63, we had a detachment of US Army, Corps of Engineers TDY on our base. They were there to rebuild the runways that had cracked that previous winter.

The Army officers particularly did not like how laid back us USAF GI's were.

One day I was going into the BX and a young 2LT with VERY short cropped hair was coming out. And he was giving me the evil eye. As he got closer, he said, 'Well airman, where is it?' I said, 'Where is what, sir?' He says, 'Where is the salute?' I said, 'We are under cover, sir. You don't salute when under cover." ( We were under the awning leading to the BX ). He got all flustered, mumbled something I could not understand, and left. He really thought he had me; sorry, Bubbo.

I really loved that experience. :yes:

Jerry Baumchen

 

[bruiser]

As most have said,middle finger to temple at the end of the eyebrow. If you wore glasses, the middle finger touched the frame at the hinge. You did not salute indoors but came to attention. Generally there was no saluting on the flightline either as hats were not worn on the line. Another caveat, it was not necessary to salute a chaplain. Some officers demanded a proper military salute. For some it was just a quick straight up and down. Kind of like a John Wayne Navy salute. A friend of mine was a retired BG. I use to piss him off by giving him a salute whenever I saw him.

Also, don't know if it's still protocol but we had to salute a staff car if was showing the full colonel or above rank. And when entering the gate, the Security Forces airman (MP) (Shore Patrol) will salute officers whether in uniform or not.

 

[M109Dreamer]

I retired from the Army 10 months ago. As others have stated, eye brow/temple are unless you have headgear on. Then the salute goes to the edge of the brim, unless your wearing a beret in which goes to eye brow/temple. The Army does salute indoors when you report to a formal board, senior ranking officer, and to the pay officer.

We have always been authorized to salute in civilian clothes aff duty as well, and when you sidnt have headgear outside during those times.

Its a real PITA at times, eslecially for those LT's, but by the time they are CPT's they have gotten better.

It is so bad now, that they made us salute in Afghanastan in 2013 just because some jack wagon general got his rocks off on seeing people salute him.

Yet in Iraq we didnt salute anywhere I went. Go figure???

Bet that wouldn't happen if they actually had snipers around

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

 

[Gray Ghost]

I have been retired for awhile, but the services do have different standards on that. At the Sergeants Major Academy a bunch of us Army guys got real upset with a Marine in morning PT formation when he didn't salute the colors. That was when we found out about them not saluting, I don't remember now if it was just because he was uncovered or if they didn't consider PT gear as being a uniform.

As someone else stated, Army does salute indoors when reporting to a superior, or a board (pay call is long gone). We also saluted in PT gear outdoors even though there was no cover in that garb. Since 2009 military out of uniform and veterans are also authorized to render the hand salute to the colors.

 

[2Paw]

Hi lizmcg,

Re: We were taught to salute with the longest finger just touching the end of the eyebrow, fingers together and straight with the hand, thumb at the side and touching.

USAF '59-'63 - This what we were taught also.

A favorite memory. The Air Force was rather well known for being rather laid back. In the summer of '63, we had a detachment of US Army, Corps of Engineers TDY on our base. They were there to rebuild the runways that had cracked that previous winter.

The Army officers particularly did not like how laid back us USAF GI's were.

One day I was going into the BX and a young 2LT with VERY short cropped hair was coming out. And he was giving me the evil eye. As he got closer, he said, 'Well airman, where is it?' I said, 'Where is what, sir?' He says, 'Where is the salute?' I said, 'We are under cover, sir. You don't salute when under cover." ( We were under the awning leading to the BX ). He got all flustered, mumbled something I could not understand, and left. He really thought he had me; sorry, Bubbo.

I really loved that experience. :yes:

Jerry Baumchen

USAF 62 - 66 I was stationed on Army posts about half my carreer an ran into this issue all the time, and yes it was fun to put them in their place. The one I liked was in the Air force you did not salute and officer in a moving vehicle unless they were a field grade and had their rank displayed, the Army was different I don't know how many times I was stopped by a junior officer for a failure to salute. One told me I should have known he was an officer by the sticker on his personal vehicle. I told one one time that I knew he was an officer soon as I saw him turn around to stop me, because everyone else was too busy to to do that sort of thing. He called my commander who told me not to worry about it he took care of it.