Check down not Up

I have heard it quite a few times, but the bottom line up front is that my general military authority trumps anyone's desire to hide behind that saying. I have had several "discussions" with senior ranking Soldiers, and junior ones, about revolving around this kind of situation.

Wrong is wrong, but you have to approach certain situations with tact and always expect some resistance.

Amazing how things you haven't had a lot of experience with before tend to happen after you read about them. 2 weeks ago, I was going up an escalator in the Pentagon behind two LTCs in their service uniforms. One of them had his hands in his pockets. When we got to the top, I politely said "Excuse me, Sir, your hands are in your pockets." I wasn't trying to bust him out, just making a simple spot correction. His response? You guessed it. "Check down, not up, sergeant." And he walked down the corridor, hands still in his pockets... 

I had an admiral zip up his windbreaker before I'd take a picture of him at the War College. I got the idea he hadn't and wasn't told things like that due to numerous pictures I'd seen of him with his windbreakers unzipped completely or well underneath the three-quarter mark (with the zipper in the track!) Sometimes, you have to throw caution to the wind and accept that you're going to take some heat from somebody about tactfully correcting (not lambasting) a senior rank for something. It happens.