Anyone saluted the wrong rank working on a Joint Base?

Well Monday morning on board the Navy Yard while in NWU's (Blueberries, Aquaflage, Utilites) in the course of 15 min I had three Sailors salute me. I just return the salute and continue on. The third one realized it mid salute as he passed me, kept his salute up and said "Morning Senior!", "Morning Petty Officer"

I was stationed at a NATO Base working with Supreme Allied Command. The confusion was amazing. I remember one time i walked upon a young Turkish service member wearing a star my mind tells me no way this kid is old enough to be higher than an e-5 so we stood there for about a minute both staring at each other thinking i was supposed to salute him and he was supposed to salute me. I am sure he was confused by the large bird and golden chevrons on my cover in the end we figured he was an E-4 and me being an E-6 we both saluted each other had a good laugh and carried on until i look back and see him run into my SCPO and the same thing happens again lol.

No offense, but as An Army Guy, I hate the Navy, why did you have to confuse the issue (ARMY, AIR FORCE, MARINES Colonel, NAVY, Captain, Really??? It was useful when I was on a Navy base as a SFC (E-7) on a Naval base, they started giving me grief, I said I was going to call the Captain, they fixed the problem, not knowing my CPT was an O-3

When I was a young Marine private it took a little while to get use to those Navy ranks. And I did make the mistake a couple times. But after a Chief jumps your ass you figure it out right quick. But it was a lot of fun watching folks from the Air Force and Army stumble all over them self saluting enlisted.

Back in the day, pre-9/11, DoD stickers for cars were Blue (officers) and Red (Enlisted). My 161/2 year old son with sorta long hair borrowed my car (with a blue sticker) and he & a friend went to an installation with decent surfing. The gate guard saw the sticker, waved him on (didn't have to show ID), and saluted the car. My son, knowing salutes should be returned, saluted the guard. His friend burst out laughing, as I did also when told of it. (Life is too short to take things TOO seriously, right?)

Hahahahaha! Hell yeah! How about saluting an Airline pilot? One of those things after boot camp. In an airport, went to get a cup of coffee, past and Airline pilot and reacted. Pilot was a bit puzzled. I was afterward.

At Al Udeid one day in 2010 I got saluted by two Air Force E-9s. The SCPO behind them, who frequented my smoke pit, laughed his head off. Air Force is used to rank on collars belonging to officers. I also got saluted by a Cpl when I was a LCpl in Yuma. Had aviators on and a Y harness coming back from the armory that covered my collars. I looked behind me and then we just laughed. In hindsight they proper thing to do was return it.

I can remember way back when I was in AIT, all of the schoolhouse cadre would always say “Warrants aren’t real officers” (tongue in cheek of course) I didn’t pick up on the sarcasm until one morning entering the schoolhouse a group of WO2 pilots walking past and everyone else in the gaggle saluting and giving the greeting of the day, and my smarta$$ proclaiming loudly “what are you guys doing, they are not real officers!!” The WO2’s started laughing and I felt like an idiot in front of everyone… my first experience with if everyone else in the platoon is doing it, keep your mouth shut and do the same, haha I still cringe when I think about that morning.

When in doubt salut! Saluting is not a punishment; is a curtesy! Salut proudly and go on!

While I get the meaning of your question. Why is it embarrassing if you salute someone who is not an officer? Every person - - enlisted, officer, civilian, a veteran can salute anyone when they want. There is not any rule saying that I can't salute anyone. When it doubt whip it out.

As a retired USAF member, I have saluted a few civilians, and yes they were veterans. Yet, again, we can salute anyone at any time.

We might need a refresher on the history and purpose of saluting...

when I was onboard Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM) I got saluted all the time. I was stationed there for 5 years and I felt like a General!
I am a huge believer in customs and courtesies, and if I am on a base belonging to another service I know the ranks!!! I can say, I know the rank insignia of every service top to bottom.
I know that it's tough knowing the difference between a Navy CPO and an officer, but, if you know your other service ranks there should never be a problem.

I can not say I have saluted the wrong rank, but I have been saluted. I can kind of understand why, because the E4 thru E6 rank insignia for the US Navy kind of look like the O6 for all the services.
Sometime I will stop and help the other service members look at my rank insignia, so that they can see the difference. Other time I am in a hurry and just keep moving with my day.

The Army School of Music is on Little Creek Naval Base in Norfolk Virginia. We walked around saluting Naval Chiefs all day. Shiny rank on a collar always gets saluted.

And we always referred to sailors as Petty Officer Such-n-such - which irritated them. Meanwhile the Marines would get furious if we forgot to all someone Lance Corporal versus Corporal.

One Master Gunnery Sergeant told me to call him 'Master Guns with a stress on the MASTER.' Hilarity ensued... but I don't think he was trying to be funny.

In 29palms CA there is a Marine com school. Marines since day one of boot camp know what a Navy Corpsman is. I can not count how many times as a third class petty officer I was saluted. How many full bird colonels are in their early 20's.

For my last deployment I was at BAF. Hard to tell the Navy POs from the Full Birds when it's getting near dusk on Disney...

In ACUs LTC and SPC rank look remarkably alike until you're at about 6 paces and MAJ and 2LT rank are almost invisible until about the same distance.

Try walking around an AF base as a warrant officer. They are the only service without them and unless you happen to be on a joint AF base (I was one of only about 30 Army guys on the base) they sure as hell have no idea what a few dots on your head is supposed to mean. I would constantly get stares trying to figure out if they were supposed to salute or not but drive to the joint base 20 miles down the road and the SPs knew exactly what you were.

According to Military customs you can salute anyone, of any rank, at anytime. My funniest situation was when assigned to NATO on a custodial team working with a German unit. Had to go to a German Panzer kaserne to pick up comsec material. I was a E7 just coming off a 24hr shift. As I approached the door to Hqs a German private came out of nowhere, slammed to attention, and opened door. First was where in heck did you come from, second was had to be a officer behind me, and then WTF. Turns out German Army treats senior NCOs like we do officers.

Not to long ago I was in at Tyndall AFB for supporting the Air Wing and Ships Company personnel for a missile shot and aerial gunnery as a civilian and went to have lunch with Ships Company Chief as he was walking in from his car he got saluted by lower enlisted Air Force personnel and I got a chuckle out of it and so did he. He says he it happens and the other thing I get confused is Air Force rank who is senior enlisted hard to tell and everybody calls them Sergeant once they make E5 up till E8 then they get called Chief once they make E9. The way I see it I will call you by what your rank is.

One of my units had a crest that looked like a silver oak leaf and when in classB uniform I was frequently saluted.

I always enjoyed that sheepish look on the junior officers face when they got closer and saw my stripes!

Army and Marine captains don't like being addressed an Lt.

I Salute te Person not the Uniform...

In the early 90's I was a junior enlisted Airman working in a TACP on Ft Lewis. With the Ranger BN there and the fact we both had black berets I did get saluted at night if the lighting wasn't enough to distinguish that I wore a different flash & crest. Was especially bad when the powers that be decided we didn't need pewter(ish) crests and supplied us with bright & shiny chrome ones.....

As a very old Specialist (40+), I used to get saluted a lot. From a distance the Army E4 rank Insignia looks similar to that of a LTC, just a black blob. So I got saluted a lot when out and about garrison and in the field. To save time and the explanation, I would just salute back and keep moving. When the mistake was discovered, almost everyone was very cool about it and would laugh it off, always ending the conversation with 'and how old are you?'. Very rarely someone would make a big deal about it and I would have to listen to them for a while before getting back to work.

Funny you should mention it SSG Borders, I was a SP5 (In case people don't know that's a Specialist 5/ E-5 in the Army back then) stationed in Hawaii in the mid 80's, where all U.S. Military Branches are there, I was at the Pink Palace, Tripler Army Medical Center, I'm a Medic/O.R. Tech, I must have Saluted quite a few Navy and Air Force people when I first got there, mostly Navy, some just laughed and smiled and told me they were enlisted but Saluted right back, heck some Marines were saluting me cuz they thought I was and officer, I'd smiled and Saluted right back, you know SP5 rank, but I learned as time went by. I chuckle about it every now and then when I think about now, like you, I whipped out my best snappy Salute, just in case. Thanks for the memories.

As a very young airman (USAF) I had to go to Pensacola NAS for training. The eagle on a Navy uniform had me saluting everyone.

Not on a joint base but after returning from Nam in 70 I had to go into the MCRD marine base in San Diego.
I was in class A's that day and when I went on base the gate gaurds saluted me and of course I returned it.
I was an e-5 but I think they saw the flash on my beret and that is why the saluted.

Many many times that same thing happened to me when I was stationed at MCRDPI. And many, many times I kicked myself in the ass for doing it. But I was there to do it right or wrong and during that time in history, just being there had a lot to say.

Always the Navy ranks. When I was an A1C I was assigned to NSA. We worked in a red seal door, which meant you needed to have a key to open the door (replaced by cypher locks now) or you had to knock. Knock at the door. I go to see who it is and it turns out it was a Naval officer. I told the guy he was looking for some Navy Captain is at the door for you. He jumps up and runs to the door shouting you left him in the hallway? He gets to the door and I hear him say LT was there a Captain with you? The LT says no just me. I said well shit he has on Captain's bars...

I did salute a Navy Chief once. Couldn't see the insignia so I followed the WIDWIO rule too. He laughed and said nah, that ain't me.

Back in 1962, as a private at Ft. MacArthur, California, a fellow private and I mistook the base Fire Marshall for a Navy admiral and rendered an outstanding salute.

As a young Marine private, I saluted a Marine L/Cpl. His rank was worn and shiny. I made his day!

Saluting is the custom in the military to show respect - or to just say good morning. Military officers expect to be greeted with a salute - a sign of respect and a formal way of saying "good day". Enlisted guys can be salute but they don't expect it - if confused, just salute and give whomever you are saluting a verbal "hello" or "Good Day." Nice!!!

We were told in AF boot camp, “If it moves salute it, if it don’t piss on it”.

Hell I was 32 when I joined, at Ft. Leonardwood wearing Class A uniform, I got saluted by privates even though I was just a PFC myself. I guess when in doubt salute.

If you've never saluted a Navy E4, have you even been in a joint environment?

I was found n Bosnia at Tulsa Airbase. Finance office was where NATO headquarters were located in “Salute Alley “ as it was called. Going there was a nightmare. American service members along with NATO officers and enlisted from other countries. I know I screwed up a few times but nobody called me on it!

When I was still in flight status and wore my flight suit on a daily basis, I would get saluted quite often. That flight suit is pretty tricky.

I have saluted more Navy Chiefs then I know what to do with. They all look the same with shiny brass. We were always taught salute the brass, but they all wear it and I felt stupid every time I did it.

I graduated AIT and within a couple months found my self deployed to Iraq, and saluting every damn Navy enlisted, or Navy corpsman I saw.

I just kept thinking to my self how young some of these colonels were... and how damn many of them there were.

My only excuse was I was an E-2, and after several puzzled looks and laughter, a Navy officer set me straight. All worth a good laugh now. Stupid Navy eagle...haha

I was just talking about this the other day. Bagrum was a salute zone and we were always getting yelled at because we would visit for re-supply and forget to salute. When we were there I could not tell you how many Navy PVTs I saluted after dark! The first thing you see is the bird. I would get so mad once I got close enough to realize who I saluted. I would be like... "really! Your just goanna let us salute you and not say anything?" Eventually we gave up on trying and just excepted getting yelled at.

When I was a CPO at the US Merchant Marine Academy my crew and I were saluted constantly be the Midshipman. Now that I am a CWO on a Navy base they all look at me like I am the first CWO they ever saw. The odd thing is there are quite a few CWOs on this base both USCG & USN.