Navy Story #15
A Salute By Any Other Name
Shortly after I graduated from Office Candidate School (OCS) and got my commission as an Ensign, I was assigned to my first duty station, the USS Pensacola (LSD-38). Pensacola was home-ported
at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in (or near) Virginia Beach, Virginia.
My parents and also my sister, Judy, were living near Virginia Beach at the time. My folks were in Chesapeake, and I think Judy had an apartment in Norfolk back then. Anyway, Judy
and one of her girlfriends wanted to visit my ship not too long after I got there, so we arranged for me to meet them at her apartment, I think, and then to drive over to the base as a caravan, with me in the lead. That meant
that they would have to follow me through the guarded gate, and I would have to ask the guard to let them onto the base.
That's not a big deal. Getting them onto the base, I mean. But my car had a bumper tag on the front that identified me as an officer, so when I went through the gate, the guard
would always salute me. Again, not a big deal.
But there is a little-known rule in the Navy (maybe all the armed forces) that says that an officer driving a car does not need to salute the gate guard, in returning the guard's
salute. The officer may nod his head instead. That's how I normally went through the gate, and it satisfied all of the guards I had experienced up till then.
On this occasion, I rolled down my window to talk to the guard, and stopped my car next to the gate-house door. The guard saluted, of course, and I nodded back. I proceeded to tell
him that the ladies in the car behind me were my guests, and asked if he could he please allow them through the gate. He said they could come onto the base, so I nodded again and went on in. Judy followed me through the
gate.
When we got to my ship and had parked, Judy told me that the gate guard had stopped her briefly and told her that she needed to tell her boyfriend that he is supposed to return a salute.
I gather that he was pretty upset. What I hadn't noticed as I talked to him was that he had held his salute the whole time. He either didn't see my nods, or didn't know about that rule.
Anyway, I felt pretty bad about that. It wasn't my problem, but it still bothered me that the guard had been angry. I guess I'm like that. Even if I'm right I don't
like to anger or irritate other people.
Oh, well, we had a nice visit to my ship that evening, and I still continued to nod as I went through the gate in the future!