Posted on Nov 17, 2016
Is a salute or greeting required when walking behind a superior officer while that officer is unaware of your presence (on phone faced away)?
97.4K
68
44
6
6
0
The path that I was walking on was also accompanied by an Air Force O-6 (Col) who was leaning over the railing on his cell phone. He was unaware of my presence as I walked past him to his rear. I was trying to play out my options in my head, but by the time I could think of anything to do I passed him. I thought maybe I would be distracting him from the attention he was giving his phone. Thoughts?
Regulation
Saluting
Customs and Courtesies
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 33
15
15
0
Navy customs specify a salute accompanied with the greeting, "By your leave, sir/ma'am" if passing an officer moving in the same direction. Generally accepted not to directly interrupt the superior if they're on their phone...don't expect a return if they are.
When in doubt, salute.
When in doubt, salute.
(15)
(0)
1LT (Join to see)
True. In hindsight I would have much rather saluted/greeted and covered my bases. Out of all my training and time in service, I have never found myself in that situation or heard of instances of the same. So, I wasn't prepared. I've also seen reference to the "when in doubt, salute it out" saying in my further research but nothing covered this recent scenario.
(1)
(0)
(4)
(0)
7
7
0
If an officer is distracted or busy she's probably not interested in saluting. If you perceive that the officer is simply not looking or not aware of your presence and a simple greeting may be in order then why not pipe up and say "hello sir/ma'am" and salute with a smile. Salute silently anyway if you want...but generally speaking, saluting is a form of respect, right? Another form of respect is not to be annoying if they're on the phone, too.
(7)
(0)
SSG (Join to see)
It would be tempting to bark out a loud greeting to see if you could startle them.
(2)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google