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Any US Military Officers, either Active or Retired........
OldEastside
Posts: 4,602 ✭✭✭✭✭
......What exactly is the Tradition with the Silver Dollars once you were Commissioned ?
Or is that just a Navy thing?
Steve
Or is that just a Navy thing?
Steve
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At USAFA we all put in $1 each that was given to the last graduating cadet on the MOM (Military Order of Merit). They were NOT silver dollars.
I have heard of nothing like this in the USAF . .
Drunner
(Doily Slut and T-33 / RF-4C Slob)
I'm retired (enlisted) from the Air Force, and it is done in the Air Force.
When I lived in the dormitory, I was on the same floor as the security forces Airmen, and I know a few of them got silver dollars from new second lieutenants coming through the base gate, since the salute from the gate guard was often the first time the lieutenant received a salute. I was stationed at a pilot training base, so we had a TON of 2Lts there!
Steve
No Way Out: Stimulus and Money Printing Are the Only Path Left
$1 each for the "goat", bottom graded person who still got commissioned. That was almost $1000
$1 to the first enlisted person to salute. At graduation, with almost 1.000 new 2lt's, the enlisted went into the crowed like sharks in a chumming war, snapping salutes and grabbing the $1 as fast as they could. That was almost 40 years ago, and everyone used $1 bills.
<< <i>also a tradition that the US submarine captain put a silver dollar under the new bank of battery cells when they got swapped out. Was present many times when the old dollar was found under one of the 126 cells. As a shipyard worker we always had more volunteers to remove the old battery than we did to install the new battery. >>
I was the electrical officer on my first submarine and we did a battery changeout. Don't recall anything about a silver dollar though. And that was around 1979-1980 when silver
was still worth something...lol. My memory of that era is a little weak but I think we did that battery changeout along side the pier. Since I was commissioned before "Officer and a
Gentleman" came out I was clueless about the silver dollar "tradition" in 1977. What I won't ever forget is running into my first Marine LT Colonel about a month after graduation and
having no clue what uniform he was in or if he was even in the US armed forces. I didn't salute him and he chewed my butt big time. Never had a problem recognizing Marine officers after that.
<< <i>Not sure if this is it . .
At USAFA we all put in $1 each that was given to the last graduating cadet on the MOM (Military Order of Merit). They were NOT silver dollars.
I have heard of nothing like this in the USAF . .
Drunner
(Doily Slut and T-33 / RF-4C Slob) >>
Drunner - That was no longer tradition when I was there. I did however hear of giving a dollar to the first person that salutes you after you're commissioned...no one I knew did that either.
EXOJUNKIE
(USAFA '91)
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
'dude
Don't recall that tradition.
<< <i>
<< <i> What I won't ever forget is running into my first Marine LT Colonel about a month after graduation and
having no clue what uniform he was in or if he was even in the US armed forces. I didn't salute him and he chewed by butt big time. Never had a problem recognizing Marine officers after that.
Hehe, Damn Jarheads, Thats why I asked this question, in boot down in San Diego, as
a Seaman 1st Class, I lost one of my chits to a Marine Officer I failed to salute and he
jumped all over my a*s, so my CO got all 80 of us in our Company and explained the
Silver Dollar Tradition as an incentive not to F*&% up and salute anything with scrambled
eggs on there cap and warned us obout Marine Officers (JARHEADS) as he put it. Boy I miss
it.
Steve
siliconvalleycoins.com
Really? I am class of '98. We gave a dollar for the anchor man in the class, and it was a silver dollar (not just a dollar) to the first salute. I think a midshipman got mine....
John
siliconvalleycoins.com
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
<< <i>Badhop,
Really? I am class of '98. We gave a dollar for the anchor man in the class, and it was a silver dollar (not just a dollar) to the first salute. I think a midshipman got mine....
John >>
Thank you for your service and all those who served.
I remember the anchorman but not the first salute. But then there is a lot I don't remember these days.
Can't get the cow out of my head though.