Anyone saluted the wrong rank working on a Joint Base?

Never had a problem. All branch officer collar devices are the same. I look for the brass, etc, and salute that way.

As far as the Navy everyone, easy way to tell. Here is the breakdown:
In our NWU's- enlisted have silver name tags, chiefs and officers have gold.

In our SU's- enlisted is khaki top/black bottoms. Chiefs and officers will be all khaki.

In dress uniform- officers will have the collar boards everyone has mentioned.

Yes, chief is normally the hardest from a distance, but look for the chief anchor.

Never had any dealings with Navy officers when I was in, but foreign service officers, that was a different story. While at Ft Sill, we had German, British, French (& a lot of other nations) officers attending Arty related schools. Lucky for us, they gave them Army equivilent rank to attach to their uniform!

When I came back from Nam, I was stationed at Ft. Hood Texas. Being a new guy there, I had to go to a bunch of stupid classes. While walking back from one of these unnecessary classes, I passed a female Navy person. This bitch started to dress me down for not saluteing an officer. I apologised and said that I didn,t recognise Navy Rank . I just didn't know Navy rank. This Bitch kept complaining so I told her to go fuck herself. I had just returned from combat in Nam a few weeks earler and was in no mood for her bullshit. I was in good shape and knew that I could out run her and didn,t have my name on my uniform so she had no way of identifying me. I had issues from Nam and wasn't about to put up with her bullshit, officer or not. It was fun and I really enjoyed it.

The Salute is a sign of Respect. Therefore, it is not possible to salute the wrong rank. As an E-5, an E-7 who was of my odd MOS -97EFR, moved to Bragg to my team working on Haiti for the last 4 months of his military career. He would salute me every time he encountered me outside. I would salute in return. I asked him about why he always saluted me, he explained about the Act of respect Respect. I noted how he did not salute the other enlisted soldiers on our team. He knew exactly what I did and how many tasks I completed each day compared to the other members of the team. It made me proud to be acknowledged in such a simple gesture. So, if you know that the Salute is a Sign of Respect we normally use for those of higher rank, it can be used for one of any rank. Have a great day. Consider this a salute to you my fellow brothers and sisters in Arms!

This was a good assignment,because I learned about all of of the services which included the National Guard and Reserves.

This only happened one time when I was first assigned to MEPS

You think a Joint Base is bad? Try a multi-national one. Oy!

I had one place that I just saluted everyone, to be safe. Got a few confused looks, but most just returned my salute. And I got saluted more than a couple times myself.

I have a short story about being saluted that is kind of funny. Upon returning from Vietnam in 1967 I was assigned to the USAG Yakima Firing Center in Yakima Washington. I had been in the army since 1963 at that time. Unfortunately, I ran into a "little" trouble while I was stationed there and was busted from E4 to E2. After removing my rank, I was left with nothing on the sleeves of my dress uniform, with the exception of my combat patch, and of course, I had my two overseas bars and at the time one service hash mark, as well. I also had several ribbons and am a CIB recipient. Now with a lot of new service members during the Vietnam Era and many of them not sure of anything, when someone approached me walking down the street they would see no stripes, the ribbon rack, the CIB, etc and assumed, he's got all that stuff and no visible rank, it must be an officer and they would snap a sharp salute with a "good morning Sir"! Like a good soldier, I always returned their salutes. My time of being saluted was short-lived as I was promoted back to E3 as soon as I was eligible.

I have done it more times than I care to admit. But better safe than sorry. And if you are wrong, something to smile or laugh about. Never had anyone get mad I made a mistake.

The Marines don’t have their own doctors or medics so we use the Navy for that, too. It’s like coming out o the hospital and seeing shiny on the collar of someone walking up to the building. And only realizing too late it is a chief… on the other hand, the corpsmen are affectionately know as “Devil Docs”, as they are out in the field taking care of us Marines with their asses on the line, too.