{"id":15722,"date":"2026-08-21T10:24:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billemory.com\/blog\/?p=15722"},"modified":"2026-08-21T10:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:39:19","slug":"slap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billemory.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/slap\/","title":{"rendered":"Slap"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Navy<\/a>
Waco, April 10, 1999, Mark and Susan Dossett exit the church, just married, and then<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Arch of Swords <\/strong><\/p>\n

Right after the ceremony, as the newly married couple exits the church, a group of fellow Navy officers line up in two facing rows outside the door. They draw their swords and raise them to form an arch or tunnel of crossed blades.<\/p>\n

The couple walks through the arch. At the final pair of swords, the officers often lower the blades to briefly stop the couple so they can kiss. Then one officer gives the civilian spouse a light tap (hah!) on the backside with the flat of the sword and announces something like \u201cWelcome to the Navy!\u201d (or \u201cWelcome aboard\u201d).<\/p>\n

This tradition, with roots in the Royal Navy, symbolizes the Navy family\u2019s pledge of loyalty, protection, and welcome to the new couple. It is one of the most recognizable features of a U.S. Navy (and Marine Corps) officer\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n

Commander (O-5), United States Navy.
\nThe uniform is the U.S. Navy Full Dress White (or Service Dress White in a ceremonial context):<\/p>\n

White combination cover with the standard Navy officer crest (eagle, shield, and anchors).
\nHigh-collar white tunic with hard shoulder boards.
\nThree \u00bd-inch gold sleeve stripes (the hallmark of a Commander).
\nNaval Aviator wings on the left breast.–Grok<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Arch of Swords Right after the ceremony, as the newly married couple exits the church, a group of fellow Navy officers line up in two facing rows outside the door. They draw their swords and raise them to form an arch or tunnel of crossed blades. The couple walks through the arch. At the … Continue reading “Slap”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[88,25,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-88","category-friends","category-strange-land"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billemory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billemory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billemory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billemory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billemory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15722"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/billemory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15726,"href":"https:\/\/billemory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15722\/revisions\/15726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billemory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billemory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billemory.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}