Posted on Mar 22, 2014
Why do gate guards/MPs salute non-front plated officers in vehicles?
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Baahhhhhh
Deleted because I failed to find it in the reg first. Sometimes people are just wrong. Thank goodness I looked it up before further embarrassment. I suppose I never fully read this paragraph on the first part of the sentence:
The practice of saluting officers in official vehicles (recognized individually by rank or identifying vehicle plates and/or flags) is considered an appropriate courtesy and will be observed. Salutes are not required to be rendered by or to personnel who are driving or riding in privately owned vehicles, except by gate guards who will render salutes to recognized officers in all vehicles unless duties are of such a nature as to make the salute impractical. When military personnel are acting as drivers of a moving vehicle, they should not initiate a salute.
Ok to save a little face - lol - when does it make it impractical? When 40k Soldiers are coming in to base during rush hour?
Deleted because I failed to find it in the reg first. Sometimes people are just wrong. Thank goodness I looked it up before further embarrassment. I suppose I never fully read this paragraph on the first part of the sentence:
The practice of saluting officers in official vehicles (recognized individually by rank or identifying vehicle plates and/or flags) is considered an appropriate courtesy and will be observed. Salutes are not required to be rendered by or to personnel who are driving or riding in privately owned vehicles, except by gate guards who will render salutes to recognized officers in all vehicles unless duties are of such a nature as to make the salute impractical. When military personnel are acting as drivers of a moving vehicle, they should not initiate a salute.
Ok to save a little face - lol - when does it make it impractical? When 40k Soldiers are coming in to base during rush hour?
Posted in these groups: 
Saluting
Saluting
Edited 10 y ago
Posted 10 y ago
Responses: 12
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My wife (my girlfriend back then) used to have a ball with this when she came to visit me while I was at OBC at FT Gordon. She would take my car and drive on and off post to watch the gate guards salute. The guards would recognize the parking permit sticker and salute. I told her to stop abusing her "authority". :-) On future assignments she would tell my troops to call me by my first name, which they would do for a few laughs. That's why we're celebrating 20 years of marriage this year!!
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SFC Jones, Glad to see you found the wording that requires it. As an MP, I can tell you that not only do we Salute after returning the ID card at gates, We Also Salute Officers at the end of a traffic stop. As an NCO if your not in uniform or you rank is covered by your seat belt, the MP would probably address you as Sir, But if the MP really looked at your ID, he/she saw your rank and should then as he/she hands it back you and says have a good day, or welcome to wherever "Sargent". Now as for the impracticality during the morning rush, The salute doesn't really take that much more time. I haven't worked a gate in nearly 9 years, but as I remember it the following driver actions tend to slow things down a bit: ID card not ready, Cant Find ID, Cant find First Gear, Driver Sets the Parking Break, Driver decides that while he/she is stopped that it is time to fiddle with the radio or look for a CD, answers cell phone and then realizes that he/she is right in front of an MP, Takes his or her sweet time, and of course that driver that rear ends the car in front of him.
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Raising one's right arm in a simple gesture of respect for all that person has accomplished is never a wasted effort. I knew the MPs and SFs at Forts Hood and Sill and Shaw Air Force Base knew well their duties and never failed in them.
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