"B. All Army personnel in uniform are required to salute when they meet and recognize persons entitled to the salute. Salutes will be exchanged between officers (commissioned and warrant) and enlisted personnel, and with personnel of the Armed Forces of the United States..."
Officers
Customs and Courtesies
Army
Saluting
AR 600-25
I do not expect a WO1 to salute me. I do salute CW3-CW5 upon first meeting. I have no issue saluting but I usually get a"come on dude what you doing" or a "ummmmm....ok"
It just dawned on me... I think I understand the wide gulf in opinion between NCOs and Commissioned Officers. I think the senior/subordinate aspect of Saluting is far weightier on our Commissioned counterparts.
Officers, you will salute everyone you pass. You look at them, examine their rank, process who gets more think pay, then either waits or initiates. Who initiates re-enforces who is junior.
Enlisted only salute commissioned and warrant officers, not each other. We are taught that the return salute is owed to you just as much as your initiating salute is owed to the Soldier rating it. It isn't about this person outranking me specifically; it is about them holding a Commission or Warrant where I do not. It is a completely different conceptual perspective.
In this paradigm, I can understand how LTs could get heartache over something we do reflexively regardless of how shiny the rank is we pass. With LTs seen as interchangeable, this breaks that mental mirage and re-enforces who outranks who. It honestly does not require as much thought for Enlisted. (Please, no jokes about not much thought being required to be enlisted anyway... :) )
In the Enlisted corps, our custom is to give the greeting of the day to a passing senior and the senior returns the greeting just as with saluting, but we all know this does not always happen, as it should. It stands out in stark contrast when serving with Marines while hearing "Good morning, Staff Sergeant" and replying with "Hooa-ah, Lance Corporal" every 10 feet (even in doors) where the Army Privates may give a polite nod or ignore you entirely.. Hell, even the Airmen and Sailors are far more prone to render this customary respect than what TRADOC is putting out. The problem is so wide spread (like 2LTs saluting 1LTs) that I could spend every second of my duty day making correcting Privates and end up just being referred to as that A-Hole SSG. It simply is not worth the investment in time to something seen as trivial in the Army culture.
What do you think?
PS: As for warrant officers, I believe the sentiment is: "Are we seriously talking about this right now? Just salute whoever before I rip out your spleen and turn it into guacamole."
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