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Posted by Juno847627709@aol.com on Thu, 22 Mar 2001 21:48:21 EST
Alrighty.
Got a question here for those of you ‘in the know‘ about this sort of
thing.
I was reading ‘Reader‘s Digest‘, clumsily leafing through in hopes of
finding‘Humour in Uniform‘, it was a mission failed when I stumbled upon
some info about gun salutes.
There was a Mr MacFarlane working at a Military Heritage Museumor
something in/around Ottawa, and he was asked, by Reader‘s Digest, the
meaning of a gun salute.
He said, in a nutshell, that to salute was to deliberately display
defencelessness in the face of a respected superior. So, seeing as reloading
weapons formerly was rather time-consuming process, all the men under a
commander would fire off their rounds, leaving them completely defenceless to
the passing Officer/Official, or whatever. From what I understand, if
somebody‘important‘ was approaching a fortified building, the weapons from
the castleor whatever would all fire off, once again leaving it defenceless
to the incoming personel, as a sign of trust and respect.
Now, ‘they‘, in Reader‘s Digest, say the people of certain appointments
are given a certain number of ‘shots fired‘. The higher the appointment, the
more shots, all the way up to 21 for Royalty, or so methinks.
In no place in the article did it mention anything about gun salutes for
fallen troops.
I was under the impression that if a unit lost a member, they would
provide a 21 gun salute, in honour of the dead comrade. Is that the
commercialised, Americanised version of things, or what?
If Pte Bloggins catches one, at his formal funeral do we not give a 21
gun salute?
Any enlightenment out there?
Thanks,
-Matt
--------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: To remove yourself from this list, send a message
to majordomo@CdnArmy.ca from the account you wish to
remove, with the line "unsubscribe army-list" in the
message body.
Alrighty.
Got a question here for those of you ‘in the know‘ about this sort of
thing.
I was reading ‘Reader‘s Digest‘, clumsily leafing through in hopes of
finding‘Humour in Uniform‘, it was a mission failed when I stumbled upon
some info about gun salutes.
There was a Mr MacFarlane working at a Military Heritage Museumor
something in/around Ottawa, and he was asked, by Reader‘s Digest, the
meaning of a gun salute.
He said, in a nutshell, that to salute was to deliberately display
defencelessness in the face of a respected superior. So, seeing as reloading
weapons formerly was rather time-consuming process, all the men under a
commander would fire off their rounds, leaving them completely defenceless to
the passing Officer/Official, or whatever. From what I understand, if
somebody‘important‘ was approaching a fortified building, the weapons from
the castleor whatever would all fire off, once again leaving it defenceless
to the incoming personel, as a sign of trust and respect.
Now, ‘they‘, in Reader‘s Digest, say the people of certain appointments
are given a certain number of ‘shots fired‘. The higher the appointment, the
more shots, all the way up to 21 for Royalty, or so methinks.
In no place in the article did it mention anything about gun salutes for
fallen troops.
I was under the impression that if a unit lost a member, they would
provide a 21 gun salute, in honour of the dead comrade. Is that the
commercialised, Americanised version of things, or what?
If Pte Bloggins catches one, at his formal funeral do we not give a 21
gun salute?
Any enlightenment out there?
Thanks,
-Matt
--------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: To remove yourself from this list, send a message
to majordomo@CdnArmy.ca from the account you wish to
remove, with the line "unsubscribe army-list" in the
message body.
