Posted on 11/01/2009 5:29:37 AM PST by raybbr
FOR nearly three decades, I’ve felt conflicted about presidential salutes. After all, my United States Marine Corps instructors drilled into me the idea that “you never salute without a cover” which, in civilian, meant without a hat.
My fellow Marines and I were also informed, in no uncertain terms, that we weren’t to salute out of uniform. (I don’t think that presidential blue suits, white shirts and red ties quite qualify.) So whenever I saw a president stepping off a helicopter and bringing hand to brow, my drill instructor’s unambiguous words came back to me with much of their original force.
Then there were the salutes themselves, which ranged from halfhearted to jaunty. None of them fulfilled the characteristically succinct prescription that Capt. Jack O’Donnell of the Marine Corps delivered, in 1963, to my platoon of freshly minted second lieutenants at basic school in Quantico, Va.: “Your salute,” he pronounced, “must be impeccable,” by which we took him to mean like his: a straight line running from elbow to fingertips, the fingers and thumb forming a seamless whole, the arm brought swiftly to the brim of the cap, no palm showing, and then lowered smartly to the side.
Presidents have long been saluted, but they began returning salutes relatively recently. Ronald Reagan was thought to be the first, in 1981. He had sought advice on the matter from Gen. Robert Barrow, commandant of the Marine Corps. According to John Kline, then Mr. Reagan’s military aide and today a member of Congress from Minnesota, General Barrow told the president that as commander in chief he could salute anybody he wished. And so it began.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I’ve got a ‘salute’ for him... ;)
Obama the politician is form without substance, so it makes sense for him to dither on his duties as CIC, but to learn just the right way to salute.
Anyone can learn to salute. Give me 30 minutes with a Catholic nun and I would have her whipping off salutes that would pass DI inspection.
Certainly long enough for a photo op. Which this was.
A salute is an exchange of greetings between warriors. Obama does not quality in any shape of the word.
“Pick it up like a rose, then throw it down like a handfull of sh!t.”
While I am disgusted at Zero for the phot op. the second thought I had at the pictue is..at least the bast%%d has a decent salute...unlike Clintoon...Just saying
I salute Obozo with my middle finger.
Actually, I thought it looked incredibly phony, like a small child imitating a salute.
Well, first of all, I’ve never seen obama offer a salute like the one in the picture. Second...more symbolism over substance for the pro-obama crowd. JMO
but did he stay at a Holiday-Inn Express? lol < / sarc
Pap from the left. It makes them feel warm and fuzzy.
I salute Obozo with a fart in his general direction!
I concur. A childish quality with that screwed up face.
Might have been his way of animating ‘/s’.
I salute Obozo with a fart in his general direction!
OK.. so long as it was a 21 toot salute.
Obama looked like an IDIOT doing this
He’s trying to figure out a way to win it.
Excuse me? In the USAF, we always saluted when reporting to a Senior officer indoors, especially if we were in for a butt-chewing. Once I got field grade rank, I would salute my supervisor, a full Colonel, the first time I entered his office for the day.
Once I became a commander, I saluted my supervisor, a Major General, every time I entered his office, which was thankfully rarely.
“A salute is an exchange of greetings between warriors.”
Followed by:
“Obama does not quality in any shape of the word.”
That is the best summation of the Obama salute possible.
Regarding the presstitute: That POS, writing about TOTUS, was practicing the usual presstitutely ‘deliberate deception’. No mention of the 17 families that refused TOTUS permission to demean, disgrace, and defile the return of their slain family member with his presence.
After reading “Victory for Obama Over Military Lobby,” we hear his salute loud and clear.
He thinks saluting fallen heroes while he keeps screwing the living ones over will give him the military vote.
I would love to give him my personal opinion of his “gesture.”
Thank you for "The Fart Farm" reference!
It’s a difference between the services. The sea services do not salute indoors. I think this tradition started because ships are cramped and dangerous places and a person saluting or returning one is likely to bump into something.
Further, sea service members do not salute without their covers, and covers are not worn indoor except for persons on duty. Hence, no salutes.
Ashore and on AF or Army bases, sailors are taught to follow the saluting customs of the base in order to prevent the appearance of disrespect.
I’m not sure about the Coast Guard, but I would think they follow USN policies.
Very simply, BO used fallen heroes as a prop. End of story. The NYT would have come to this conclusion if the president in question were GWB.
I guess the Air Force got their rules from the Army. The Marines got their’s from the Navy-no salutes indoors. All that aside, I’ll give Obama this salute. It was good. What drives me batty is when he trots down the stairs with his hands in front of his gut in that sissy jogging stance of his, then salutes without bringing his left arm and hand to his side. Sort of looks like saluting at double time without coming to quick time first.
our military services have different rules for saluting. I’m married to a retired naval aviator, and he constantly is making fun of how the AF salutes everything and everywhere (his words, not mine!)...
I was going to remark on that but decided I best not mention monkey’s.
Our military consistently demonstrates the highest degree of moral and physical courage during the conduct of their sworn duties.
However, the unseen and greatest stress upon them is to overcome the temptation to modify the salute to the Obamaloon by withdrawing three of the four fingers.........
It must take unmeasurable amounts of self control.
“Ronald Reagan was thought to be the first, in 1981”.
...when Reagan and W saluted, it was with an absolute respect for our military. When BO does it, it’s to mock. He’s a condescending POS. No one should be fooled that he has respect for anything other than his commie minions and himself.
"Yes, we...ughh...CAN -crap on America!"
Hard to believe how many on this post are willing to give the pissant credit for his salute or anything else for that matter. He hates America, he hates liberty, he hates the Constitution and all that it stands for!
I gotta find out where you got that!
Did GWB ever attend one of these ceremonies of returning fallen US soldiers?
The irony is just too thick to wade through isn't it?
I've always felt that the military, both active duty and veterans, have actually earned the right to deliver a military salute of the flag and each other much like you would earn your jump wings. Not just anyone should have that same right.
As a veteran like many of you, I too was instructed and respected that instruction, to never lift a military salute without a cover and/or out of uniform.
As you may know, however the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008, signed into law by President Bush on January 28, 2008, changed that.
Now, active duty and veteran military people out of uniform and without a cover are now authorized within the proper protocol to salute, rather than hold hand over heart, under the following circumstances.
Here is the wording in that regulation:
SEC. 594. CONDUCT BY MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES AND VETERANS OUT OF UNIFORM DURING HOISTING, LOWERING, OR PASSING OF UNITED STATES FLAG.
“SECTION 9 OF TITLE 4, United States Code, is amended by striking `all persons present’ and all that follows through the end of the section and inserting the following: `all persons present in uniform should render the military salute.
Members of the Armed Forces and veterans who are present but not in uniform may render the military salute. All other persons present should face the flag and stand at attention with their right hand over the heart, or if applicable, remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Citizens of other countries present should stand at attention. All such conduct toward the flag in a moving column should be rendered at the moment the flag passes.”
Fine — he has learned to salute. That’s his only accomplishment in 10 months.
“Yes, we...ughh...CAN -crap on America!”
Yes, wee-wee can!
You should know, your lips are perpetually stuck to his ass.
>I gotta find out where you got that!
http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/obama-spanish-christmas-doll-122308
If the President, as commander in chief, chooses, as a matter of courtesy and respect, to return salutes, well, guess what folks, that is what commander in chief means, and what our DI's taught us in boot camp or OCS is entirely beside the point.
Moreover, senior officers do not, as a matter of course, salute in a manner that their former DIs would approve of.
When RR began the custom everyone in the military took it as a point of pride that they had a CINC who showed them the respect he immediately earned from them.
Whether or not 0 salutes is irrelevant to legitimate criticisms of 0 for sacrificing the lives of good men and women on an ill defined mission in Afghanistan, that includes an extension of the WOD, with ROEs designed to get men and women killed.
Maybe Bam went to Dover because of a guilty conscience. Had he sent Gen. McC the reinforcements he requested, possibly these men would still be alive. Maybe he went for a photo-op to slow his plunge in the polls. Most of the families denied Bam permission a photo op with their loved one’s casket. The Bam man is a poor excuse for CIC. He has no desire for victory and is playing politics with Afghanistan. Just one man’s opinion........bring the troops home now. No sense in losing lives to control drugs in Afghan or nation building for Bam.
Poor Albie. Take your meds.
If Obama does this very same salute every time he salutes then he could get credit. That he perfected a salute for a photo op of dead soldiers is what is galling and this author's misguided adulation is what makes me want to puke. And, we all know that Obama's whole presidency is a fraud in regards to the military. He sees the military as a political tool and that is what makes this "salute" mere sophistry.
LOL! I never heard that one.
I agree. The problem is not his salute, but his hypocrisy and cynicism. His attitude that he “needs to study” the problem in Afghanistan must be very disheartening to the military and their commanders on the ground. He and the defense leadership, military and civilian, need to lock themselves in a room and start defining achievable objectives, resources required, and ROEs that are workable.
A reasonably good salute was probably the trade-off he was willing to make for a generally despicable photo-op whose whole purpose was to “remind” the electorate, as if they didn’t already know, that people actually die in this war.
See, people like Obama and his a-hole friends think they know more than us, and that we need to be reminded of that, and they think that by doing it THIS way, without saying it outright, we’ll overlook the thing for what it is: his attempt to create a “teachable moment” for us.
The ONLY thing better would be to integrate this crapping Obama with the pulled-of-the-shelves CHIA Obama. A double whammy.
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