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

Dr Drill,

Ms/SGM Eve Gonzalez White
77th Regional Readiness Command G-1
Ft.Totten, New York 11359-1016

Dr. Drill responds

This is an excellent question. Sadly, I don't have an excellent answer. That's not to say I don't have an answer. In fact, I have multiple answers, which is why they're not excellent. But, we aims to please here at CadetStuff, even when our aim is a little off center.

So, the long and the short of it is that Dr. Drill quickly exhausted his own library and resorted to everyone's Best Friend: Google. I Googled and I Googled and I Googled and I never did turn up any definitive Army documentation covering the situation mentioned.

Here is what I did find:

This is the section on saluting from the AR 600-1. I'm sure you've already gone over this very carefully, but for the education of the folks at home, here it is:

1–5. Hand salutes and salutes with arms

a. For instructions on executing the hand salute, see FM 3–21.5, paragraph 4–4.

b. All Army personnel in uniform are required to salute when they meet and recognize persons entitled to the salute. Salutes will be exchanged between officers (commissioned and warrant) and enlisted personnel, and with personnel of the Armed Forces of the United States (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard), the commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service entitled to the salute.

c. The junior person shall salute first. Accompanying the rendering of the hand salute with an appropriate greeting such as, "Good Morning, Sir" or "Good Morning, Ma’am" is encouraged. Personnel will not salute indoors except when reporting to a superior officer.

d. The practice of saluting officers in official vehicles (recognized individually by rank or identifying vehicle plates and/or flags) is considered an appropriate courtesy and will be observed. Salutes are not required to be rendered by or to personnel who are driving or riding in privately owned vehicles, except by gate guards who will render salutes to recognized officers in all vehicles unless duties are of such a nature as to make the salute impractical. When military personnel are acting as drivers of a moving vehicle, they should not initiate a salute.

e. It is customary to salute officers of friendly foreign nations when recognized as such. The commanding general, U.S. European Command; the commanding general, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh U.S. Army; commanding general, U.S. Forces Korea and Eighth U.S. Army; commanding general, U.S. Army, Pacific; and commanding general, U.S. Army, Southern Command, are delegated the authority to establish policies for recognition courtesies prevailing locally for foreign officials. Should inactivation eliminate any of these commands, the authority will pass down to the next level of command. This authority will not be delegated further.

f. The President of the United States, as the commander in chief, will be saluted by Army personnel in uniform.

g. Civilian personnel, to include civilian guards, are not required to render the hand salute to military personnel or other civilian personnel.

The Sea Services seem to have a lot to say in this regard. I found this spelled out for the Coast Guard Auxiliary:

The general rule that applies is that you always salute the senior officer no matter how many other officers are present.

And from an Air Force ROTC guide:

There will be times when you are in the company of an officer and a second officer approaches. ... If you are in the company of a senior officer and a junior officer approaches, salute the junior officer first, and hold your salute until after both officers have dropped theirs.

Finally, on an Army ROTC site, I found this:

Always salute the most senior officer.

About the only thing anywhere near what we're looking for is c.: The junior person shall salute first. Of course, it's going to look kind of goofy if the trooper salutes the shavetail, who then salutes the Old Man in turn!

I want to say that I'd recommend going with your recollection that you not salute when you're with a superior officer. I want to say that, but I can't. It just doesn't seem like the right thing to do. I think the best approach is to fall back onto the Golden Rule of Saluting:

Another way to think about this is that the enlisted man and the senior officer are a 'group'. As you know, when an officer approaches a group, the first man to notice the officer calls the group to attention and everyone salutes. Now, in this case, it would be inappropriate to call the group to attention, since the group includes an officer senior to the one approaching, but I can't see any reason why there shouldn't be any saluting.

So, I'm going to recommend the Air Force method, which is for the junior man present to salute the approaching junior officer and to hold his salute for a moment longer than the junior officer salutes the senior officer. This also falls roughly in line with the practice for a group saluting (and the above mentioned 'salute everyone who's entitled to a salute'), which is as close as I can get to this situation in any Army publication.

So, there you have it Sergeant Major: a not-so-good answer to a very good question! Sorry the Doctor couldn't be more helpful. If you do find something definitive, please pass it along.

Hooah!

Dr. Drill