Brick Conners and I served together a number of times. He’s now the CO of Naval Base Ventura County. Took a question from an aggrieved dependent spouse asking why she wasn’t getting her salutes:
What is the deal with the gate guards not surrendering salutes to officer’s vehicles? I don’t think an admiral’s wife or your wife would appreciate that either. We’ve worked hard to get here and should be recognized. They learned to recognize your vehicles. On every base I’ve been on they have a sign WE RENDER SALUTES PROUDLY. Here they work on trying not to salute the vehicle if the active duty member is not present. Isn’t it by UCMJ code they are supposed to render a salute to an officer? The vehicle has a sticker so why do they not (salute) whether or not the active duty member is present or not? Fill me in!! DO THEY NOT TRAIN THESE PEOPLE ANY MORE?? If not, I see more and more laxness going on in this military. A CWO wife.
Her question (and his answer) may be found here. A short précis:
Wow. That’s quite a sense of entitlement you have. Are you sure a salute is sufficient? Perhaps a curtsy or a genuflect would be more appropriate? We could have one sentry prostrate himself before you while the other fetches some oats for that high horse you’re riding.
Sure, it’s liberating to have an approved retirement date. But I’ve always loved that guy.
In an entirely heterosexual way.
(H/T to Tuna for the link.)
SeniorD,
Wonder if 8th & I went the rent-a-cop route, too? Come to think of it, the only Marines on the gates at Camp Fallujah were overwatch, with an occasional visit by the COG or SOG.
Sounds like the spiritual sister of the lady who demanded head of the line in the commissary once, ahead of those of us in uniform, on the basis of her husband’s rank (which wasn’t that all senior and led one to consider the oft remarked statement about “seniority among junior officers…..).
I have long been in favor of common courtesy and good manners, but there is a point where spousal assumption of rank brings to mind the relationship between Lone Star and Dark Helmet.
When I was at Marine Barracks NASNI (in the mid-’80s) we were required to salute the sticker, not who was driving. In fact, I remember being taught in bootcamp that Blue stickers were to be saluted, regardless.
Things are different I’m sure, now. The AF is in the process (if they haven’t already) of DXing all stickers anyway. The rest of the DOD may go to that eventually.
Warning, more off topic to follow….
“For some reason Army there seemed to think that inspecting a guy’s personal vehicle on a regular basis was a great thing to do….”
Chap, the navy in the drug heyday of the late 60′s & 70′s took great pride in that random inspection thing. Of course they took more pride in inspecting those who dissented than those that capitulated. I had mine given the once over a couple of times, but being a lowly E3/4 (at NAS Memphis) and a student besides I just figured what the hey. If they want to paw through the Whataburger remains in the back seat and the mildew from the leaking trunk gasket more power to ‘em. heh. I became buddies with a couple of marine avionics techs who had to do their gate guard duty and I became a bit more sympathetic after that.
1. Thebronze: Yeah I understand that, but my car had a silly NASA sticker, not a a serious Army sticker. Maybe the MP was afraid I might be Eberhard Rees or Von Tiesenhausen or somebody and start cussing him out in German?
2, JoeC, that reminds me of a gal I used to know and had a coupla dates with until she decided I was too weird. She had a company in the Army during the druggy seventies. Back then (before pee tests) one would do health and welfare inspections of lockers, flush the reefer and toss the paraphernalia. (otherwise, bringing charges etc. would leave the comp’ny a hollow shell)
She knew her brother, a buddy of mine, was a pothead, so she donated all of the weird little sojers’ pot pipes to him. Some of them showed excellent workmanship, some were stupid-looking. We examined them, had a good laugh, then tossed them rather than using them. Didn’t wanna catch no sojer germs, y’know
Saluting cars and stickers….
When we first got married, and as an officer’s brat, I was used to the idea of being saluted when we went through the gate. What unnerved me was when we were at PCola and I was a brand new wife in the great big pickup without power anything (hated to drive slowly and try to turn that rig!) was having squads (is that what they’re called?) of recruits marching and having the whole shooting match salute me! I was lost trying to figure out how to get where Husband was without getting yelled at when all the new sailors saluted me and made me quickly scan to see what I’d done wrong. I was ready to slam on the brakes and stop. Definitely unnerving.
My second favorite tale of saluting-gate-guards was our first Easter — we went to sunrise services at the water’s edge on NAS Corpus Christi. Two obviously brand new sailors were directing traffic to the service down the way on the wharf/runway/thingy, when the first one saw the blue sticker and started to salute. His buddy saw him move his arm so he also started to salute. The first fellow realized he didn’t have to salute stickers anymore and hesitated with his arm part way up. The second fellow saw his partner hesitate, so then he hesitated, too. They did this goofy half way up, now down, now up, salute for about 5 or 6 seconds before the first sailor gave up and just saluted all the way. It was so funny, especially after remembering the squads saluting any blue sticker that moved just a few months earlier.
The Army base my SIL is at has rent-a-cops and no one salutes. Of course, that’s the same base with no clubs of any kind for any rate/rank. Used to be fun to go to the O-Club for Sunday brunch or lunchtime.
MCRD still has marines at the gate and they always salute as I drive up with my window down and my CAC in hand which I release into their hands for a good feel check before they hand it back to me and salute again. I give them a good day and drive on. The civilians guarding the sub base also get the rolled down window and display of the SPAWAR badge (which is where I’m going) and salute and wave on. I’m sufficiently old school that I don’t like to be saluted in civvies since by the rules of the naval service I cannot return one while out of uniform or if uncovered.
There was talk above about the army insistence on actually inspecting vehicles. Speaking as an Army brat who cleared posts all over the US since 1961, that had an old meaning to the Army. If they were going to permit one to drive on their post in one’s own POV, then that POV had to demonstrate to the Army’s satisfaction that the horn, brakes, lights, wipers, blinkers etc all worked. They also preferred a POV that didn’t leave puddles of oil while parked. This was the old Army which had plenty of soldiers to detail off to this task. In the modern era they’ve just decided to accept any old junker, just like the navy does, and scrape off the stickers of the cars that displease them.
As I recall my department head days I probably had my sticker scraped by some 32nd street nazi a dozen times. It was the closest thing to being a member of the CPO mess that an officer can experience since my visits with the traffic judge usually lasted about 4 minutes and most of that was telling sea stories while his minions were putting new stickers on the windshield of my car.
Doesn’t this woman work on a city council some place? Or is that her sister who is a reserve Captain?
Re: Army vehicle inspections – they’re still doing it, at least in the training commands. When I was at Ft Eustis last summer every time there was a long weekend/4 day pass there was a detailed POV safety inspection. If the vehicle didn’t pass the inspection you didn’t get the pass.