There are not 3,729 ways to salute

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AFGHANISTAN

03.07.2014

Story by Cpl. Clay Beyersdorfer 

ISAF Regional Command South

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Being the bookworm and junior noncommissioned officer I am, I constantly find myself flipping through Army Regulations: learning, dissecting and gathering information.

As an NCO, the higher up you are, the more soldiers you have who look to you to be the shining example.

The NCO Corps is the “backbone of the Army.”

Within the backbone of the Army, comes a natural line of respect – you have respect for your team leader, squad leader, platoon sergeant, first sergeant, sergeant major.

Being a National Guard soldier, I did not always get the full effect of that – until I deployed to my current location of Afghanistan.

Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, is a “salute base.”

I was briefed this by a senior NCO on my first day of being boots on ground.

“Too easy,” I thought; I can handle it. It is custom courtesy, and the right thing to do.

The salute is something I was taught on the very first day of basic training. Whether you are National Guard, Reserve or Active Army – an Army drill sergeant got uncomfortably close to your face and made sure you knew how to properly salute.

Or so I had thought.

I have been in southern Afghanistan for more than six months, and every forward operating base I have been to has also been under the same guidance of saluting – it is expected.

At every one of those bases I have been to, I have seen roughly 3,729 ways (a very, very, very rough estimate) to salute. You name it, I have seen it.

There are a few I personally enjoy seeing, both with the initial salute and the return.

For instance, the one I call “the blade,” which involves the right arm forming a parallel line with the shape of the human body, with the hand raised to the face as if that person were about to smack him or herself.

Another, “the softball,” is a distinct, very abrupt and quick counter-clockwise motion, a full on windup on the mound if you will, before the person gets to the actual pose of a salute – a little overkill for me.

Then you have your common regular violators, where the soldier who salutes does so in a very quick and thoughtless fashion, extending the greeting “only because the rules say they have to.”

The same principle applies for some of the salutes I have received back, a ho-hum “why are you annoying me, and why did I attend officer candidate school to receive this nonsense?” return.

All these different salutes and enough time has gone by that I ask myself, am I doing it wrong? Am I part of this problem?

Into the books I went, digging through AR’s like a mad man.

I know I haven’t been in for as long as some, but I needed to know the answer – does the Army define the correct way to salute?

The answer is yes.

My research didn’t take long before I found AR 600-25, “Salutes, Honors, and Visits of Courtesy.”

I scoured through that, learning the appropriate times to salute and other forms of expected courtesy within the Army.

Further research led me to chapter four, section 12 of Army Field Manual 7-21.13, which gives a vivid description and guidance of how a proper salute should look:

“The proper way to salute when wearing the beret or without headgear is to raise your right hand until the tip of your forefinger touches the outer edge of your right eyebrow (just above and to the right of your right eye). When wearing headgear, the forefinger touches the headgear slightly above and to the right of your right eye. Your fingers are together, straight, and your thumb snug along the hand in line with the fingers. Your hand, wrist, and forearm are straight, forming a straight line from your elbow to your fingertips. Your upper arm (elbow to shoulder) is horizontal to the ground.”

There it was. The correct way to salute. I had found my answer.

But even after all my research, I realized that the issue here is not the salute itself.

Everyone’s variation of the salute, even if perfectly executed, will look different to the trained eye, because the Army is made up of soldiers of different shapes and sizes.

The real issue is the message these half-hearted and flat out incorrect salutes are sending up and down the chains-of-command.

When a NCO salutes an officer in a half-hearted fashion, the message he sends his superior is one of “I don’t care enough to do the right thing around you.”

All the same, when an officer gives a return salute that is less than acceptable, what does that tell his or her NCO?

Simply put, it is, “I don’t care enough to return the respect you are giving to me, and frankly I am tired of doing this, or I am in too much of a rush to salute back properly.”

How are we to truly build trust and positive structure in our units if we cannot perform the simplest of tasks?

If can we cannot hold ourselves accountable to do the right thing, how can we hold subordinates beneath us to the same standard?

If an officer cannot return a salute to their NCOs correctly, how can they expect them to care enough to teach their junior enlisted soldiers the right thing to do?

Regulations and doctrine are out there, so why do we not truly abide by it?

The next time you, as a soldier, an NCO or an officer prepare to salute, think about the message you are sending the person rendering or returning one of the Army’s oldest traditions of respect.

Yes, do the correct form of it, but realize the message you are sending when you perform a proper salute.

That message may not hit home right away, but when you continue to do the right thing, others will follow.

While everyone may have his or her own variation, there is only one right answer.

Not 3,729.

• Date Taken: 03.07.2014
• Date Posted: 03.07.2014 07:07
• Story ID: 121643
• Location: KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AF