Obama Honors Return of Fallen Soldiers at Dover

[snopes]

President Barack Obama is making an overnight dash to Dover Air Force Base to honor the return of fallen soldiers, absorbing the ultimate cost of war as the United States endures its deadliest month of the Afghanistan campaign.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...oldiers-dover/

[snopes]

Talk radio bomb thrower Rush Limbaugh ripped President Obama for his ego, health care reform effort - and a "photo-op" with the casket of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...a_photoop.html

[snopes]

Of course, if President Obama hadn't saluted when the cameras were on him, we'd now be reading a Rush Limbaugh diatribe about how much a disrespectful Obama hates the military.

[snopes]

For nearly three decades, I’ve felt conflicted about presidential salutes. After all, my United States Marine Corps instructors drilled into me the idea that “you never salute without a cover” which, in civilian, meant without a hat.

My fellow Marines and I were also informed, in no uncertain terms, that we weren’t to salute out of uniform. (I don’t think that presidential blue suits, white shirts and red ties quite qualify.) So whenever I saw a president stepping off a helicopter and bringing hand to brow, my drill instructor’s unambiguous words came back to me with much of their original force.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/op...01winfrey.html

[hardhead]

And it was quite unlike the photo-op of our previous president with the "Mission Accomplished" banner. Snark intended.

[CannonFodder]

I can tell from seeing photos that someone has worked with the President on the quality of his salute. His salute in January was pretty bad, but about what you'd expect from someone who'd never worn the uniform but wanted to do the right thing. His salute, rendered at Dover last week, was worthy of any 19 year old Marine or Soldier straight from basic training. Fingers and thumb together, hand canted slightly inward, tip of the index finger meeting the edge of the right eyebrow and held there.

Senior officer salutes have a tendency to get pretty sloppy. I'm guessing whoever worked with President Obama on his salute was a NCO, probably a Marine. I say well done to the both of them.

[AnglRdr]

It was the look on his face that killed me. I don't think I've ever seen him so emotional.

Salute, don't salute; I don't care personally. But honoring the fallen, particularly in light of being faced with perhaps being responsible for more of them, is the right thing to do.