Monday, May 21, 2007

Etiquette Quiz, The Salute -- PS
Buffy left an interesting comment on the post about the origin of the salute. I hope she doesn't mind if I repeat it for all of us to enjoy.

"In the British navy they salute the same way as the American armed forces. This is supposed to be because the crews' hands would be dirty and it was considered disrespectful to the officer to reveal them in a salute."

Well, that makes sense. So, now, I wonder why all branches of the Amerian armed forces salute in this way. Perhaps, we modeled our salute after the British navy, as we certainly had a lot of contact with British ships in our Colonial days, as well as in the first several decades of our existance as a nation. Or, maybe we just wanted to do something a little different than Mother England. I hope it wasn't that our soldiers all had dirty hands!

Does anyone know?

Enjoy!
Elizabeth

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