commissioned officers to give a  silver dollar to the recipient of their "first salute." In the scene  where the new graduates of Foleys class receive their "first  salutes," you can see them giving Foley a silver dollar prior to  each salute. It is also a tradition for the D.I. to place the silver  dollar of his "memorable" students in his right pocket; you can see  that Mayos dollar is placed in Foleys right pocket, rather than  the left pocket as it is for, for example, Ensign Della Serra.