The Military Salute: is it the correct Salute for the Pledge of Allegiance?

Rex Curry

The hand-over-the-heart in the Pledge of Allegiance is supposed to be performed with the right hand in a military salute over the heart. That news is supported by photographic evidence in recent research.

Francis Bellamy, author of the Pledge, would have opposed the change to the hand-over-the-heart.

Even today the military salute at the chest complies with "the right hand over the heart" dictated under the Flag Code that Congress passed. The chest-military salute may have been the original intent of people who supported "the right hand over the heart" legislation.
http://rexcurry.net/pledge-of-allegiance-images.html

A photograph of the military salute at the chest is at http://rexcurry.net/military-salute-socialism-pledge-allegiance.jpg

The original Pledge of Allegiance began with the classic military salute (to the forehead) that was then extended out toward the flag. It was the origin of the stiff-arm salute adopted later by the National Socialist German Workers Party in chants to its swastika flag and as a general gesture of greeting (as shown by the historian Dr. Rex Curry, author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets"). http://rexcurry.net/pledge-allegiance-pledge-allegiance.jpg

The Pledge's initial military salute was sometimes modified because some educrats thought it was disrespectful for children to mimic the military. A modified version of the gesture used the military salute from the chest and then extended outward in the stiff-arm salute. An 1899 photograph of the gesture is at
http://rexcurry.net/military-socialism-pledgeofallegiance1899.jpg

It is frightening to note that Adolf Hitler and German National Socialists also adopted the gesture of the military salute from the chest extended outward to the stiff-arm salute.

Congress was so vague that some people (especially those people who were already performing the military salute from the chest) interpreted "the right hand over the heart" as meaning the military salute from the chest and they continued to perform it in that manner, but no longer with the stiff-arm extension that had followed in the past.

Research indicates that the current hand-cupping-the-breast is NOT the correct gesture, as originally intended, and that the chest-military-salute IS what was intended by people who supported the current "hand-over-the-heart" phrase.

The military salute at the chest is consistent with Francis Bellamy's original intent to use the military salute as his initial gesture. Francis Bellamy (author of the Pledge of Allegiance) and his cousin Edward Bellamy called their dogma "Military Socialism." They wanted all of society to ape the military. That was the purpose of putting flags over every school and ordering mechanical chanting in military formation daily. A video documentary explains more at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BssWWZ3XEe4

The "swastika building" at the Navy's Coronado Seabees Barracks in California is an odd reminder of the Bellamy dogma. http://rexcurry.net/military-socialism-militarism-socialist-complex.html

The Bellamys bear some blame for the modern swastika as alphabetical S-symbolism for "socialism." When the Theosophical Society (TS) had teamed up with the Bellamyite Nationalist movement for military socialism (1888), the TS was already using the swastika as a symbol for socialism. The TS began using the symbol from 1875. http://rexcurry.net/theosophy-madame-blavatsky-theosophical-society.html

American soldiers adopted the swastika during WWI, and it was used against Germany. Before that time, the symbol was associated in the USA with the growing popularity of the Bellamy dogma of "military socialism." http://rexcurry.net/45th-infantry-division-swastika-sooner-soldiers.html

Bellamy's military salute in the Pledge (and the military salute over the heart) is consistent with the flag code's demand that persons in uniform should render the military salute during the Pledge.

It is disturbing to note that the flag code requires persons in uniform to NOT pledge allegiance ("persons in uniform should remain silent" during the Pledge) while persons not in a government uniform (all other individuals) are commanded to mechanically chant in unison. It would make more sense if the opposite occurred.

Francis Bellamy would oppose the hand-over-the-heart salute to the flag in his Pledge of Allegiance. The same people who say that Bellamy would have opposed changes to the words of his Pledge (e.g. the addition "under God" in 1954), would agree that Bellamy would have opposed changes to the gesture of his Pledge to America's fasciate flag. http://rexcurry.net/fascism=socialism.html#AMERICAN_SOCIALISTS_SPREAD_FASCISM

The military salute at the chest is consistent with the military mentality of Congress when the current gesture was enacted in 1942 (years after WWII had already begun, and a year after the U.S. had entered WWII. On June 22, 1942 Congress passed a joint resolution which was amended on December 22, 1942 to become Public Law 829; Chapter 806, 77th Congress, 2nd session. The Pearl Harbor attack had occurred on December 7, 1941, the U.S. declared war the following day).

Many people opposed changing the stiff-arm salute, and did not care that German socialists had "stolen" it, and Americans voiced explanations like: "we originated it" and "we did it first" and so it was "our salute" or "America's salute."

Some people thought it was creepy for children to perform the initial military salute to the forehead as written by Francis Bellamy in his original Pledge, so the forehead salute of the ritual was sometimes dropped entirely, leaving nothing but the American stiff-armed salute. That modified form of the American salute was later adopted by the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

The military salute is a sign of submission to a superior officer / commanding officer (in this case the flag / government) whose orders must be obeyed without question. The Pledge fits the USA's police state, which continues to expand and grow in power. http://rexcurry.net/1n1.gif

U.S. soldiers used the stiff-arm salute before it was used by the National Socialist German Workers Party (the NSGWP or Nazis). The American practice was the origin of the behavior adopted later by German National Socialists.

Early flag ettiquette for men in uniform included the straight-arm salute when the flag was passing or when the Pledge of Allegiance was being mechanically chanted.

The Sunday Times-Signal in Zanesville, Ohio of August 9, 1942 states, "When the flag is passing in parade or in review, all persons present should face the flag, stand at attention and salute. Those present in uniform should render the right-hand salute." The same article distinguishes the behavior for the actual Pledge of Allegiance by stating that during the pledge, "Persons in uniform shall render the military salute." The newspaper provides a photograph of the right-hand salute showing a stiff arm salute with the palm up. The arm and the palm are so stiff and straight that, at a distance, the viewer would not see the direction of the palm.

Old photographs collected by Dr. Curry show that the salute was also performed palm-down in the classic stylized salute adopted later by German socialists.
http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html

Several newspapers carried an article similar to the one in the Bismarck Tribune on May 28, 1926. It states that during the pledge of allegiance "persons in uniform render the right-hand salute."

In that sense, the "Nazi salute" is actually the "American salute" based on its origin.

As consequence, the USA set a bad example for a long time.

The world observed U.S. military personnel delivering the straight-arm salute to the flag before WWI, during WWI, after WWI, into WWII and for almost three decades before the existence of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

It continued into WWII and to 1942 (and beyond) when Congress began to dictate the hand-over-the-heart gesture.

The Pledge salute even influenced the military salute at that time. The Daily Northwestern Newspaper (Thursday Evening) March 8, 1917, explains that the military salute had an outward extension. "Standing- at attention, raise the right hand to the forehead Over the right eye, palm downward, fingers extended and close together, arm at an angle of forty-five degrees. Move hand outward about a foot, with a quick motion, then drop to the side."

Many people marveled at Adolf Hilter's "hypnotic" powers of propaganda, as if he was the first of his kind as head of the National Socialist German Workers Party. Adolf Hitler's propaganda had already been pioneered by Francis Bellamy, Edward Bellamy and American socialists. Francis Bellamy's original Columbus Day program was a blueprint of nationwide propaganda for socialism in government schools. They put government flags over schools, in classrooms and everywhere.

They even put flags (and chanting to flags) in churches in another eerie parallel followed later by socialists in Germany.

Those historical facts explain every politician's anti libertarian obsession with your children. That led to your neighbor's obsession with your children and your life. It led to the enormous size and scope of government today, the USA's growing police state, and its aggressive military socialism. They are reasons for massive reductions in government, taxation, spending, debt, and socialism.

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Rex Curry is published worldwide as a libertarian and a lawyer with a degree in journalism. http://RexCurry.net is the only site on the internet that collects and displays historic photographs of the original Pledge of Allegiance. Rex collects historic photos that show how socialism has harmed the U.S., and his hobby is also photography and graphic art, displayed on the website. His predecessors helped settle Key West back when Florida's government was virtually non-existent. The Curry Mansion (historic home of Florida's first capitalist millionaire) is still on the local tour.

Rexy@ij.net