Saluting commissioned officers

[Moray]

Do members of the general public salute and or have to call commissioned officers sir?

Similarly how members of the cadets and forces would refer to a non-commisioned officer by their rank, do the general public do the same?

Lastly, do members of the civil service salute and/call commissioned officers sir?

Thanks in advance.

[wdimagineer2b]

No. As members of the general public are absolutely nothing to do with the military then they don’t have to do anything.

Civil servants don’t have to salute but they may well call senior staff - which could include commissioned officers - Sir or Ma’am. But that’d be out of common politeness for one’s superiors at work and not through any military protocol.

[A400m]

I hope for my sanity’s sake that that is facetious

[AlexCorbin]

No saluting takes place but it’s appropriate to address them correctly.

In a cadet environment (CIs) I’d expect with cadets in the vicinity to call an officer/nco by Sir,Ma’am, Rank etc and if speaking about them refer to their role or by their rank and surname (I.e. Speak to the Sqn Adj/ Fg Of Bloggs). When cadets are out of ear shot a less formal approach can be taken.

That’s how it operates on my Sqn anyways

[wdimagineer2b]

That’s really not the “general public” though is it…

[Teflon]

Officers are not ‘superior’ to anyone. They may be senior, but not superior. Superior implies better and being an officer doesn’t necessarily make you better.

[wdimagineer2b]

It only implies “better” if you are completely unaware that “superior” is an adjective which also means “higher in rank or position”.

Referring to superiors in a hierarchy is commonplace and it does not imply that any one person is better than another in terms of individual qualities or social class.

We could play “Captain Semantic” with anything - I could suggest to you that “senior” implies that they are old and due for retirement.