Personal Salutes and Honors

The following information is an extract from AR
600-25, Salutes, Honors and Visits of Courtesy

Honors

The table below lists the military and civilian
personnel entitled to honors, together with the number of guns, ruffles and
flourishes, and prescribed music for each.  The music indicated in the
table below will follow the ruffles and flourishes without pause. Unless
otherwise directed, civilian officials of the Department of Defense (DOD) and
military departments receive the final 32 bars of "The Stars and Stripes
Forever."

Foreign military officials listed in the table
below, holding positions equivalent to those of DOD and military department
officials, both military and civilian, will be rendered the honors to which the
equivalent U.S. official is entitled, regardless of actual military rank. All
other foreign military persons will receive the honors due their actual rank or
its U.S. Army equivalent. In the case of foreign dignitaries who are the
equivalent of civilian officials of DOD and military department officials,
"Hands Across the Sea" should be substituted for the 32-bar excerpt from “The
Stars and Stripes Forever.”

A designated representative of an official
entitled to honors will be afforded honors based on the representative’s rank.

Reduction of ceremonial honors for official
visits to field installations

In the interest of economy and efficiency,
ceremonies such as parades, guard mounts, motorcades, and other activities
involving large numbers of personnel and equipment will be held to an absolute
minimum when officials entitled to such honors visit military installations on
field trips. In general, full honors will be reserved for statutory appointees
and general or flag officers of the Armed Forces of the United States (to
include retirees), for foreign dignitaries, and on occasions when such
ceremonies promote international good will.

Department of the Army officials entitled to
ceremonial honors as specified in the table below will provide adequate advance
notice to the appropriate installation commander of an impending official visit.
Notification will include information such as the general purpose of the visit,
items or areas of particular interest to the visitor, and which ceremonies may
be dispensed with during the visit. All visitors are encouraged to decline
routine honors unless a ceremony serves a useful purpose. Officials of the DOD
and of the other military departments may be expected to conform to this
practice.

Commanders who receive requests to omit
ceremonies will comply with such requests unless special local circumstances
indicate that ceremonies should be rendered, in which case the commander will so
advise the visitor.

Normally an aide, duty officer, or designated
escort officer will meet important visiting officials when they arrive and
escort them to the field commander’s headquarters, if appropriate, to be
welcomed and to conduct the official business of the visit.

Nothing in this AR 600-25 will be construed as
discouraging formal welcoming ceremonies when planned by an appropriate
authority for specific objectives and purposes, such as improving morale or
maintaining national prestige, nor does this paragraph minimize regulation
protocol observed within the military chain of command.

When and how rendered

General.

Except in the case of the President, a former
President, or President-elect of the United States, honors are rendered only
when the persons listed in the first paragraph of this page and the table below
are officially visiting a military installation. Senior commanders visiting
their own installations or posts are not normally rendered honors.

Honors will not be rendered between retreat and
reveille, on Sundays, or on national holidays (except Memorial Day and
Independence Day) unless, at the discretion of the commander directing the
honors, the occasion requires an exception. The person or persons will be
honored at the first available opportunity thereafter.

As a rule, only soldiers assigned to garrison
duty render honors.

If honors are to be rendered, the commander (or
a person senior to or of the same grade as the installation commander), will
meet the visitor upon arrival at the installation’s entrance and will escort the
visitor to the installation’s exit at departure. If a dignitary senior to the
person arriving or departing is already present, the installation commander will
detail another officer to represent him. When honors are to be rendered a person
junior to the installation commander, the latter may detail another officer to
meet and escort the visiting person.

When 2 or more persons entitled to honors
arrive at or depart from an installation at the same time, only the senior will
receive honors.

Any official or officer holding 2 or more
positions (civil or military), 1 of which entitles him or her to honors, will
receive only the honors due the highest grade. In no event will the same person
be honored in more than 1 capacity.

Cannon salutes to persons.

The time interval between rounds in a cannon
salute will be 3 seconds except as follows:

• When honors are rendered at funerals, in
  which case the cannon salute will be fired at 5 second intervals.
• When such interval is in conflict with
  prescribed safety regulations for the type of cannon employed.
• When such interval is not feasible
  considering condition of ammunition and materiel, number of guns available,
  proficiency of gun crews, atmospheric conditions, and other local limitations.
  

As a rule, the firing of a salute will begin at
the time the person entitled to it enters the installation and, if entitled to a
salute on departing, the last round will be fired as the individual leaves the
installation.

Cannon salutes generally will be rendered only
to officers and officials of 4 star or equivalent grade or higher. Cannon
salutes for officers and officials of lower than 4 star or equivalent grade may
be rendered on special occasions when so ordered by the major commander
concerned, or in the case of foreign dignitaries, may be ordered by DA at the
request of the Department of State.

Cannon salutes to officers and officials of 4
star or equivalent grade or higher will be rendered on the occasion of each
official visit if requested. Salutes to officers and officials of lesser grade
will not be fired at the same place in compliment to the same person more than
once in a calendar year unless, in the meantime, such person has been advanced
in grade.

When the cannon salute is an integral part of
other honors (ruffles and flourishes and appropriate music), the band and the
firing battery will be coordinated so that the first round of the salute is
fired simultaneously with the first note of music. Military personnel being
saluted and other military personnel in the ceremonial party will render the
hand salute during the playing and firing. Civilian personnel being honored and
other civilians in the ceremonial party will stand at attention. Personnel on
security duty will not render honors.

Honor Guard.
See FM 3-21.5, paragraph 12-1.

Ceremony and parade requirements (in order
of precedence)