SALUTING

Here you can see me, CPT Kawai, LTC Church and MAJ Waldron as we returned from Camp Eggers the other day.

Camp Eggers is an interesting place. Basically, they took a whole city block and put a fence around it. So there's lots of houses and twists and turns inside.

Every time you round a corner, you run into someone. The place is fairly crowded. If you are a first lieutenant like myself, that means you will always be saluting someone or returning their salute unless you run into another lieutenant.

That can get to be quite exhausting, because you are saluting about every thirty seconds. I kind of thought it was funny actually. You almost want to just keep your hand up there at all times because you'll just be bringing it back up there in a few seconds.

Take a look at the picture and the insignias at the center of our chests and on our covers.

It's somewhat hard to tell what these insignias are as you're walking towards someone. For example, the LTC's oak leaf can look a lot like a specialist's rank from a distance. You're supposed to salute within six paces of the officer, but sometimes this can get difficult. You always have to be scanning the uniform of the approaching officer and you can feel the panic rising if you aren't able to quickly discern the rank. The last thing you want to do is not salute someone deserving of the honor or mistakenly salute the wrong rank.

I know all the ranks, but my point is that it's hard to scan them quickly when you're rounding corners and running right into folks.

The other branches make things even more complicated. The navy enlisted have eagles on their uniforms, which from a distance can be mistaken for a colonel's rank. I must admit to getting fooled once which caused me to salute a navy petty officer. He was quite confused as he returned my salute. A second lieutenant and I mistakenly saluted each other also at Camp Eggers (lieutenants don't salute one another) and we both got a good laugh out of it. For some reason, his gold bar looked like a major's oak leaf to me from a distance.

Anyway, this gets even more complicated if a bunch of officers are walking as a group. The four of us above walked around Camp Eggers together a lot. So what happens if a captain is approaching us? I'm supposed to salute him, yet he's saluting the major and the LTC, and CPT Kawai isn't saluting anyone. I think it's sort of funny, but I have a strange sense of humor.

Yes, to you military purists out there, there is a rule that governs this situation but most folks probably don't understand it and I don't feel like explaining it here.

So that was the big adventure last week. This week I am observing an Afghan military trial. The crime took place at my base so I have a lot of interest in the outcome.

I'll let you in on the details next time. It's not pretty. If you've read the Kite Runner (which I highly recommend), you should have a good idea of the crime that is at issue.