Anyone saluted the wrong rank working on a Joint Base?

I didn't because my dad was a senior chief, but at NAS Cubi Point I was with B Co. MARBKS Subic Bay and I would laugh like hell at all the jarheads saluting Chiefs. CPO's and officers wear the same working khakis, but chiefs have an anchor on the collar and left side of the pisscutter, and officers wear rank and branch on collar if not line, and officers insignia on left of pisscutter and rank on right. Miss my dad. Retired EMCS and Korean War vet USS Shelton DD790.

I'll bet everyone has done so at least once!

Well, I guess RPB is run by snowflakes and cupcakes by evidence of my deleted (disappeared) reply. My, my, my what thin skin you all have! Figure I'll have to delete my account in kind.

All these responses has me wondering what exactly are they teaching in the military rank identification classes being held in today's military. Or, is everyone more concerned with NOT misgendering the snowflakes? Hmmm...?

During my abbreviated West Point cadet career (1960-6), ... we as 1st yr plebes saluted taxi cabs.

Never the wrong rank, but I recall being at Shepherd AFB in the mid 80’s. A fellow Marine and I were walking across the street towards the PX when a young Lt approached. We snapped up a couple of crisp salutes with the accompanying “Good Morning Sir”. We thought he was gonna faint.

For us Marines, if somebody had something shiny on his collars, he rated a salute. I saluted more than just a few Navy CPO's before I learned to look more closely.

Back at Fort Bragg in 1968/9 the saluting was so bad the C General made everyone salute anyone else that outranked them. Yes, enlisted saluting other enlisted.

....I Never Had A Problem With Saluting The Wrong Rank....
But I DID Have Some Fun, Not Saluting At All.
What Was So Funny Was Seeing The look On Their Face,
When They'd Start The Salute & I'd Just Pass Them By.....
Oddly Enough I Seldom Got Called On It..."Seldom", Not "Always"
But Making Up Excuses Was Fun Too... "Sorry Sir, I Didn't See You Coming".
Then There Was Dave Libby, My Good Ole Friend.....Dave Would Stop The New 2nd Lieutenants When They Confronted Him. (Shiny New Silver Bars Gave Them Away. As Did New Attitude, New Officers Get)......Dave Actually Had The Balls To Say "Lieutenant, Are You Not Familiar With The New Base Regulation (Then Rattle Off Some Arbitrary Numbers)...Which Clearly States: "After 1800 Hours On This Base, Saluting Is Not Required Of The Enlisted Staff"? ....He'd ALWAYS Get An Apology... Not Once Was He Ever Questioned... We Were Of Course, Wearing Our Badges...
I'm Relatively Sure That Helped A Little!....

Yes. Numerous times. Always Navy. Now I did have SOME fun at Naval Base Great Mistakes doing training, with the crowds of Junior Enlisted guys walking around that would salute the Capt I was with (USMC) and ignore me. I would growl "Well I guess a CWO doesn't rate around here does he!". They would scatter, Capt would tell me I was being a dick. It was my little private joke, because Camp JeJune 1987 a group of us had just checked in for school (Pvts/PFCs) and were walking around checking things out and saw a weird sight, it was a CWO walking right towards us. We'd never seen one before. Not at Boot Camp for sure. We stopped and stared for a few seconds (what is that? I dunno, a Sasquatch maybe?). He flipped out "I guess I don't get a Salute OR a proper greeting today, do I!". He got his snappy salute and Greeting, walked off and we hi-tailed it. Turns out that particular CWO was half Ghost AND half Sasquatch. Or perhaps a ManBearPig. The world may never know for sure. But as I stared, I said to myself "I wanna be that guy.".

When I was new to the Marine Corps we were told by default if it is shinny salute. Let me tell you how much I dislike the shiny Navy ranks. Don't get me started on flight lines or OCS.

I was stationed at Osan AB in 1977. Was walking on the main drag, when I was saluted by an Airman. Seemed he was a "Newbie" like I was. The only insignia on my cap was my Unit Crest. I didn't pay it much mind, until i was saluted by another airman. After that, I went along with it. When I got promoted to E-2, the saluting stopped. No biggie da...

All that problem on regard to the pretty small pin on ranks,is the result on some one fault,in the creation of such extremely small hard to identify badges or insignias.When the services years back were using cloth badges on the arm,nothing of this sort was a problem.Then the Marines started to use small pin on subdue insignias for their fatigues for the enlisted,after the Korean Conflict and the beginning of the 60's, fallowed by the Army during the Vietnam War for the same purpose.Lately the Army made the great mistake to implement such small ranks,very difficult to identify,also to the Class B's uniforms for some time.Then the Navy,as well as the Coast Guard,did the same.For me, my opinion is that all services are wrong and commited a great error on establishing this kind of ranks that are so difficult to see and identify.Ranks for enlisted personnel should be of cloth material on the arms for all uniforms and services,
including the fatigues or combat uniforms,and the officers,as was done in the past,in the collar or the shoulders,
depending the uniform class or the branch of service as required,not on the breast as they are doing today,even in the Air Force and Space Force,that are extremely difficult to identify,unless you are at twelve inches from the person.
I hope DOD will take action on this matter,in all branches,and fix this problem one and for all.

No. But to be fair, I grew in a military dependent from birth to my own enlistment. While dad, my youngest brother and myself were USAF and having a brother in the Army, we lived a lot of places were we had direct exposure to military members of all branches of service.

But I do have a fun story of when I was going to Tech School at Keesler AFB. A friend who was a fellow classmate and I decided to go for a walk after classes one day. He had never had exposure to abything near the flightline and being fresh out of Basic, he wanted to see some planes. We walked as near to the flightline that I knew we were allowed and out of nowhere, a female Navy officer walked toward us. I kept trying to get him to salute. He kept saying that he didn't see the rank and unfortunately (for him) he didn't heed my warning. The Lt. chewed Jim a good one. Then she turned to me and was about to let loose on me for him not saluting. Thankfully Jim stood with integrity and told her that I had tried to get him to salute, just before she ripped me too. Then, the Lt. asked me (being an Airman Basic E-1), how did I know, since she was a Navy officer. I explained I had been a dependent when dad was stationed next to 2 Navy bases twice in his career. I think she had a chip on her shoulder when she walked up on us but she left with a smile. After that, Jim always listened to me if we encountered military members from other services. Who would have thought that all of those years as a dependent would pay off this way? Not me!

I saluted the wrong rank before the bases were joint. There was a staff sergeant back in the days when we wore our ranks on our covers. His rank was old and always flashed brass in the sun which caused me to salute. He would laugh and mock me while taking no notice at all that his rank needed M-nu. His rank on his BDUs needed to be black and it was about 1/3 brass.

While in the Balkans, I was super confused when I saw a crescent moon on a hat. I had no idea what to do. The Muslim chaplain laughed and informed me he was a captain.

My friends and I would seek out British Officers while at Fort Benning GA Army Infantry School to salute so we could get their unique response.

I saluted a South Korean CSM everyday for a month until he finally stopped me and told me. His rank was shiny, gold to be exact, I was an E2.

Worse. I did the opposite. Once I didn't salute a naval officer because I had no idea what the rank was, especially from afar. The second time I was in Kuwait and there were some Aussie officers I didn't salute but I obviously had zero idea what their rank looked like. Just kind of felt like a dirt bag after that one.

I have saluted the wrong rank. Once at Edgewood Arsenal I saluted a SGT from Thailand because his rank insignia consisted of three gold stars, he returned the salute, thanked me, and then told me he was a SGT. We both laughed and went our ways.