RESPECT BETWEEN SUPERIORS AND SUBALTERNS

Discipline in the army is the standard to which soldiers must adjust their
conduct; Its bases are obedience, and a high concept of honor, justice and
morality, and its object is the faithful and exact fulfillment of the duties
prescribed by military laws and regulations.
Discipline requires respect and mutual consideration between the superior
and the subordinate; violation of this standard of conduct will be punished in
accordance with military laws and regulations.
The soldier must proceed in a legal, fair and energetic manner in the
fulfillment of his obligations, in order to obtain the esteem and obedience of
his subordinates. It is the duty of the superior to educate and direct the
individuals that the Nation places under his command.
They are style norms based fundamentally on the uses and customs that
must be observed and kept in family, social, work events and even in official
and private ceremonies, as well as in dealings between private people.
It is a set of procedures, intended to standardize a human or artificial
systematic behavior in the face of a specific situation.
The fundamental principle of the military constitution is the positive
existence in the armed institution of exact discipline, obedience and
subordination, which according to the legal precept “consists of the constant
and absolute obedience and respect of the subordinate to the superior; in
the prompt and exact fulfillment of the orders that the first receives from the
second; in the equitable and effective reprimand of any offense or abuse; and
in the faithful observance of the laws, regulations and other established
requirements.”
It can be inferred from what has been said above that respect and absolute
subordination, obedience and voluntary discernment in the fulfillment of
orders received, as well as careful attention to what duty commands, will be
the main characteristics of every cultured and disciplined soldier. This,
combined even with foolproof discretion, will personify the complete soldier.
Logical and rational deduction of the concept set forth in the preceding
paragraphs is the following: “Military discipline, in the objective sense, lies in
the voluntary and conscious observance and practice of the rules that
establish the duties and obligations of each member of the military hierarchy,
to achieve the goals and satisfy the ideology that the institution must pursue;
and in the subjective sense, it lies in the moral conviction of the necessity of
such norms.”
The duties of relationship between bosses and subordinates are derived from
the aforementioned considerations, duties that, kept in their right medium,
stimulate the effective life of the discipline. These relationship duties, for
their part, are enlivened through military courtesy, which by definition
includes the fulfillment and practice of acts of civility, respect and mutual
considerations, applied in military service.
If courtesy is important in civilian life, it is perhaps much more so in military
service, which demands greater sacrifice, greater loyalty, greater work and an
austere and rigorous life. For there to be a spirit of discipline in the Navy, it is
necessary that men in the service be courteous to one another.
Respect for superiors is not demonstrated only by obedience to the orders
that emanate from them, it is verified on all occasions, keep in mind that one
can be courteous and attentive, as a true soldier should be, without reaching
servility, nor to humiliation, and that no superior should force the
subordinate to do degrading things or to obey orders that tend to lower his
dignity.
When obedience is broken by lacking the respect or subjection due to a
superior, through words, gestures, signs, gestures, or in any other way, then
the criminal type of insubordination arises; and when, through inconsiderate
or violent words or actions, the respect to which the superior is obliged with
respect to the subordinate is violated, abuse of authority appears, where
appropriate, which, in addition to constituting a personal offense, lowers and
destroys discipline.
Indignation against injustice is one of the main constituents of meaning, and
positive morality depends no less on it than on the right to the attributes of
mutual respect. Respect for the decorum of others is the effective means of
not provoking indignation.
All members of the Navy The considerations that are due between equals
and those that the regulations prescribe to the subordinate with respect to
the superior will be mutually respected always and without any excuse.
In military life, external demonstrations give the permanent sensation of
hierarchical dependence and, therefore, of discipline; and in this the greeting
is one of the most common signs of respect from the subordinate to the
superior.
Established as is the legal precept exposed, let us consider the military salute
as one of the signs of courtesy, we must pay close attention and not confuse
the civil salute, the one given in the street to individuals, with the military
salute that has been defined in the preceding paragraphs: emblem, in all
times, of the profession of arms.
It is our privilege as soldiers to have a distinctive salute, which when done
well constitutes not only courtesy, but also traditional military chivalry. That
is why every soldier should be proud of his salute, and should execute it in a
way that distinguishes it from the imitations seen in civilian life. The military
salute done with due correctness and precision cannot be confused.