Salute is gesture of honor

Executing a good salute is harder than it seems.

Anyone can pop off a half-hearted hand-to-forehead gesture, but the crisp snap of a genuine military salute takes practice to perfect, said Army Spc. Chris Raynor.

He demonstrates: palm down, wrist locked, fingers straight, one swift movement. New privates make it a robotic movement; it should be a stiff but natural gesture, Raynor said.

"I practiced a lot in the mirror" as a private, he said.

The salute is a unique military custom that shows respect by a junior rank toward a higher rank. How it's performed varies by country, but origins of the gesture date back to the Middle Ages when knights in armor lifted their visors to distinguish friend from foe.

Command Sgt. Maj. Noel Cartagena said JROTC students at the Academy of Richmond County are proud to learn the salute.

"They grasp it very quickly," Cartagena said.

When the American flag is raised and lowered at the school, students in uniform stop and salute. They're taught the exact movements and the protocol for when it's appropriate. There are occasional mistakes, but Cartagena is pleased that they make the effort.

"There's nothing else like it at the school," he said.

The rules for saluting vary slightly among military branches, but a junior ranking soldier always initiates the gesture when six to 30 paces from a senior officer. An officer immediately returns the salute and business continues as usual.

The exception to saluting is during field exercises or in combat when snipers are aching to kill an officer or senior enlisted soldier.

Raynor, who is stationed at Fort Stewart, Ga., said officers are generally returning so many salutes on post that they do a "shark salute." It's less a waist- to- brow movement and more an angled chop.

The more senior the officer the less the angle, so usually command staff are performing almost a wave, he said with a laugh.

Steven Amster, a retired Army colonel, said the salute becomes an automatic gesture after 30 years in the military, but it's important.

"It's an honor," Amster said.

In the earliest days of the military, junior officers removed their hats to show respect for their seniors. In the late 19th century, Queen Victoria decided the bare heads were unsightly so she decreed the military salute.

Buz Yarnell, a retired soldier and now a spokesman for Fort Gordon, said saluting is not such a habit that it's missed when service is over.

He appreciates a bill signed into law in 2008 that allows veterans in civilian clothes to salute the flag during the National Anthem.

Yarnell said he placed his hand over his heart before the law, but he's always proud to hold a salute for Old Glory.

"I do it every time," he said.