Anyone saluted the wrong rank working on a Joint Base?

That CPO looked like he was a General to this young Private - When in Doubt, Whip it Out! - Of course he certainly informed me in no uncertain terms that he wasn't a $%$*^! Officer.

Good funny story. My first duty station, Garlstedt, Germany, back in 85'. It was customary to put your BDU cap on the hat rack in the mess hall. As usual we were getting one of the main seasons there, Rain. So wearing my rain jacket, grabbed my hat and headed to the motorpool. Started getting all these Salutes. WTH?? Looked behind me to see if an Officer was behind me but nothing. So I just chalked it up to newbies. There it happened again. Why is a SPC me another SPC? Light bulb. I took off the hat and low and behold I hat a butterbar rank on. HAHAHAHAAAA. I took the rank off right quick. :)

SMH, I've saluted a P03 in Iraq and walked by thinking damn.....that's a young looking colonel

Oh yes. I have saluted Navy Petty Officers (I think) and even fellow Army Specialists because it looked like LTC rank from a distance.

Late to the party on this response, but I like the question. At language school at the Presidio in Monterey, all services and many ranks were represented. One morning two of us (USAF E2) were walking to class wearing sweaters with our rank pinned to epaulets when two marines of similar rank walking toward us saluted. We both saluted back and then realized that they thought WE were the officers. We made sure all the Marines in our classes knew that these two young men knew how to show respect!

I once saluted a airline pilot when I was a PV1 on leave. He just smiled and returned my salute and told me it was not necessary in airports.

Never had a saluting problem. IMO the easiest visual confusion is Army Specialist and Army LTC. On battle uniform from 10 feet away both are a black spot in the middle of the chest. Also hard to distinguish between Navy Chief and Senior Chief from more than a few feet away except in Service Dress Winter Uniform.

Our first liberty out of boot boot camp in San Diego we were saluting everyone. Marine rank wasn’t so hard but the Navy was tough. Fun being out and laughs for all

Id rather be given shit for failing to render a salute at all, than for saluting a senior enlisted whom didn’t already know me personally. Of course those Navy dudes with “shine” on their enlisted rank insignia are often rather easy to spot.

I worked at a Navy base in San Diego as an instructor. At the time, I was an E6 (First Class Petty Officer, for those who think they want to know). For instructor duty, we'd wear our "Peanut Butters", which were basically khaki tops and black pants, with a garrison cap. The Navy collar and cap devices were shiny, and hard to recognize at a distance.

If you were in the Navy, the sight of the black pants would be an easy tell. See black pants? That's an E1-E6. Khaki pants? Now you have to look more closely.

Every once in a while, we'd have to go to MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot) for vehicle tags and whatnot. Every single time, we'd get saluted. Not just by the boots, but even by some of the instructors. I always returned the salute, maybe with an unintentional smirk, and carried on.

Some of my co-instructors, though, would ask if I wanted to head over to MCRD on the way back from lunch (great food in San Diego) just so we could confuse some Marines. I figured that would be a good way of making those Marines eventually resent Navy enlisted folk. Not a good idea.

Salute it if it Shines, comes to Mind what's left...

When I was a WO1, I was in an exercise in Japan. We had multi service involved and one foggy dark morning, and individual and I came around the same corner almost running directly into each other. Both of quickly looked up and saw a silver bar in the dark. We saluted each other really quick giving the morning greeting and moved out. A few days later we ran into each other and recognized each other and talked about it. We laughed almost to crying. Not sure if that counts but……

I'm sure I probably have but I don't remember. Having a Senior Moment. Bet the chief was more than happy to let you know that it wasn't necessary since his "Parents were Married" LOL! Ah Fond Memories of my Time as Master at Arms Commander Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Washington, DC. My Office was at the Navy Yard but I spent a great deal of time over at Anacostia and was in Air Force Housing at Bolling.

Soldiers are bad to salute anything gold, so navy chiefs in Khakus with golden anchors on their collars often took mistaken salutes. Marines occasionally saluted Army enlisted in class A’s because the shoulder DUIC would fling in sunlight!

OMG! All the time. The air force guys would come to the shop I worked at and saluted me all the time and called me ma'am and officer. I was only a e-4. But the crow on my collar looked like officer birds. One gold one black. But the air force guys saw a bird on the collar and would salute. Some times I loved it, but it was weird when officers where doing it and though I was either ranked with them or higher. I educated the enlisted guys so they wouldn't look like fools anymore, but I never knew what to do for the officers. LOL Maybe I should have spoken up but there was something funny about officers saluting a enlisted first

So, I was Navy and I was sent TAD to an AFSOC school at Hurlburt Field in Florida. At the time, I was a 22 year old E-5. Our rank insignia is a crow perched above two chevrons, which clearly many unsuspecting Air Force members took for being the youngest full bird colonel in history. Doors held open, salutes, the whole nine yards. I would just say “I’m enlisted too, carry on.” and keep it moving.

In their defense, Naval Special Warfare was utilizing different uniforms than the regular navy at the time and our rank set dead center in the middle of our chest and was difficult to see. They saw the bird and just immediately whipped the salute out. It was an interesting 3 weeks, especially at the chow hall.

Not really the question, but in my 2nd to last week of BT my squad buddy and I thought it would be funny to impersonate officers to some of the newbees (newer than us, at least) by wearing black 1st LT & Capt. ranks respectively (on our OD greens w/ softcaps), when just as we had "pulled rank" on a couple of groups of approaching newbees as they went by us, we saw an approaching MP Jeep, and barely managed to get all the bars off before they were close enough to bust our asses. The joke we played on the new people really did crack us up, but almost getting caught sobered us up immediately as well, and we never tried anything like that again...whew!

I have no clue how many specialists i saluted during my 8 years! Looks like at LT Col subdued! But their confusion was evident on their faces and was kind of funny!

As a SPC I was saluted by a 1sg. Granted it was dark an all he could see was the subdued insignia, so it was likely a "when in doubt" situation. I just returned the salute.
He saw me later in the light, grumbled and carried on.

It can be confusing at times. E-1 to E-6 are known as Petty Officers. E-7 is Chief Petty Officer. E-8, One star on fouled anchor collar device is called Senior Chief P.O. or Senior for short. E-9, Master Chief P.O., or a Command Master Chief P.O. (CMDCM), He or She would also have a star inside their rocker on their dress uniform. Now at this E-9 rank You also have a Fleet/Force Master Chiif P.O. They can be distinguished by the gold Fleet or Force pin on the left pocket of thier worn khakis. Highest enlisted rank would be an E-10 or a Master Chief P.O. of the Navy. They have three stars over their fouled anchor and one star within their rocker on their dress uniform. They are only seen at certain times. Then You have the Warrant Officers (WO1 to WO4). Then You have the O-1 Ensign, O-2 Lieutenant Junior Grade, O-3 Lieutenant, O-4 Lieutenant Commander. All four grades are considered junior officers. Usually an O-4 is an Executive Officer on a small ship. Or can be a Commanding Officer of a shore command unit. O-5 Commander, O-6 Captain (Usually called Skipper by some. 0-7 Rear Admiral Lower Half, O-8 Rear Admiral Upper Half, 0-9 Vice Admiral, O-10 Admiral. Fleet Admirals are no longer used. One Fleet Admiral would be Admiral Chester Nimitz. A carrier was named in His honor as well, USS Nimitz (CVN-68). I hope all this helps out in any eay possible, because I just this all by memory as well.