When I was a NAVCAD going through advanced training at ATU-301 (AD-6s) in Corpus, middies would occasionally show up on base for orientation flights with the VP guys. They decided that since the gold chin strap on their combination caps was wider than ours ( 3/8 in vs 1/4 in) that we should salute them. Coming back from chow we met a group of middies, and since we didn't salute, they stopped us to correct us. One of my roommates replyed " Oh, Sir, I'd love to salute you, but I had two divebombing hops today and my right arm is fatigued from all of those 5 G pullouts." The middie said " They let you guys fly ADs?" My roommate responded with "Let us? It's our job, man." and laughed. Didn't have any more trouble with middies.