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.