I grew up as a military brat, and spent time in myself.
We were taught to refer to ALL people either older than us or in a position of any authority as “Sir”, “Ma’am”. End of story. Not “Mrs. Wilson”, “Mr. Wilson”, “Claire” or “Ed”. We were allowed to address military personnel by their rank and name as “LT Jones”, etc.
I remember many times when my father would be chewing us out, and when asked if we understood, answering with a simple “yes” was sure to elicit a growling “Yes WHAT?”.
We were allowed to call them “Mom” and “Dad”...:)
When I was in the Navy, I remember being taught to refer to all civilians regardless of rank, station or status as “Sir” or “Ma’am”.
I have continued it to this day, and while some Northeastern women don’t like being called “Ma’am” because it makes them feel ‘old’, I do it anyway. I do it as a sign of default respect for people I don’t know.
I’ll never forget one pompous 1st Lt. in my outfit. I was a parts clerk at the time, or training to be one, and the guy I was replacing was telling me about the Lt. Oliver(the soldier)said , “ Old Gary P. doesn’t like it when you fill out the forms this way!”. Lt. Gary P. Graves was standing behind a locker and came storming out and chewed Oliver’s butt for about an hour for using his first name. After that I called him(the Lt.) Gary P. Whenever I got the chance!
Hear hear, we agree. BB just has a problem with the military and jumped at the chance to try and humiliate it. I would love to see her get her pompus ass voted out of office but the idiots in CA keep electing her.