You can submit your questions to Dr. Drill via e-mail to : DrDrill@CadetStuff.org.

Dr Drill,

I have often heard that the reason American Military Personnel salute palm down is signifying that we have never lost a war or lost a conflict on our home soil; moreover, the reason the British (and the French) salute with the palm facing outward is because they have. Is there any validity to this?

Joshua Smith
Former c/CSM Battalion Staff
Cape Coral High School JROTC

Cadet Smith

While we'd all like to think of folks like the French as "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" while visions of endless ranks of Wagnerian conquerers marching under the Arch de' Triomphe play out in our mind's eye, relating a military's prowess on the battlefield to their manner of salute is just not "cricket".

Truth be told, most military customs and courtesies references depict the origin of the salute coincident with the need to show an approaching comrade in arms, or even a wary enemy, that you were not bearing arms.

There is also a school of thought that suggests times when a knight or other soldier needed to show his sovereign that he bore no weapon, and thus no treachery, toward the crown. This is in the same vein as stories that the knights raised their visor with the right hand for ID purposes, while at the same time taking their hand away from the sword, which again indicates peace or greeting by removing the threat of the weapon.

Of course, the act of raising the visor of a knights helmet generally resulted in the hand holding the visor to sort of be facing away from the head and body. (ref: Sir Bedimere from "Monty Python & the Holy Grail" as seen here) The British, and those who were part of the British Empire, still use this "palm away" motion as part of their salute.

Sort of. Let me explain further.

Notice that the Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy and I believe the Royal Marines all salute somewhat "American-style," that being "palm down"? I've been told by an RN officer that the reason the Navy still salutes that way is that they did not mutiny like the Army did. Apparently during the 1600s (and Dr. Drill's knowledge of arcane British Military History topics is limited to what he can glean from old episodes of Soldier, Solider and Red Cap on the Beeb, so take that for what its worth), the Army mutinied against the king and was stripped of the privilege of saluting in the "palm down" fashion, but instead had to salute "palm away" to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that no treachery was afoot.

While I have no reason to disbelieve this, it could be one of those "sea stories" that grows a life of its own, so who knows, really. After all, this "bloke" knew how to dance a hornpipe in his skivvies. We could be on a trans-Atlantic goosechase for the Royal Navy's equivalent of "50 feet of flightline" for all we know. However, we do know that the reason the British Army is called the "British Army" and not the "Royal Army" is due to that mutiny. Oh, what a convoluted past our brothers in England have...

(Update 5/1/04: Our "bloke in the know" did a backpedal soon after this article was published. We were informed by a young Kiwi lad that the reason the Royal Navy, and other navies, too, apparently, salute "palm down" is that their able-bodied seamen in the old days of sailing ships would have tar or pitch from the masts & rigging on their hands. Saluting with the palm down didn't show their dirty palm to the officer or dignitary being saluted. So much for our chap from the RNR being "the" definitive source. We'll administer 20 lashes with a set of shirt garters.. -Dr. Drill)

What is likely the case is that the American (colonial) forces began saluting in a style distinctly different than their enemy, the British, for the purposes of separation. Or maybe they were just getting lazy. Either way, the custom stuck.

But to my knowledge, and that of historians I have queried, the "palm away" salute does not result from defeat on "home turf."

Hope that answers your question.

Dr. Drill