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Army Hand Salute Research Paper

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History
Have you ever wondered why we salute or where this gesture of respect came from?
To preserve history, senior leaders must uphold, teach, and pass down heritage and time honored traditions because heritage and tradition is what has shaped us into the military force we are today. This paper will cover the history of military salutes, its evolution, and the effects that it has on the military today.
The military salute is a tradition that permeates within the military and dates many centuries. There are two distinct salutes used by the military today. The hand salute and the gun salute.
The hand salute is a form of recognition and greeting between members in the armed services. There seems to be no true origin of the hand salute and it leads to a lot of speculation of how this gesture of trust and respect came about. Forms of the hand salute traces back to the Roman and Medieval Times. During the Roman times when assassinations were widespread and common, in order to see a public official, a citizen would have to raise their right hand to show that it was free of a weapon. In Medieval times, a knight in armor would raise their visors …show more content…

Navy adopted the hand salute from the British Navy. The British Navy’s earlier salutes involved removing the headgear. When they started adding chinstraps to their headgear, it proved too difficult to remove the headgear in each instance so they began just touching the hat with their right hand. This gesture, officially modified in 1820, evolved into the hand salute we use today. Some may think that hand salute is a sign of inferiority because juniors have to always salute seniors first but it is not. Juniors salute first as a military courtesy towards seniors and it is always required to be returned. A few other instances where the hand salute is rendered is during the National Anthem or foreign national anthem, “To the Color”, “Hail to the Chief”, rendering reports, and raising and lowering of the

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