Anyone saluted the wrong rank working on a Joint Base?

I have not met a soldier who knows that a Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant insignia is not that of a Sergeant Major, I just go along when they call me Sergeant Major.

This was 8 years ago? Why did this just pop up in my email!

But if the military would stop making ranks so damn small you can't see them until they are upon you, it wouldn't be an issue.

All the time at DLIFLC in Monterey Ca. Those damn navy ranks are hard to figure out. I was told if it shines you salute it.

Too funny. My Dad was a naval officer from before I was born until he retired when I was 17 YO and I spent loads of time on Navy bases from Norfolk to Newfoundland to Jacksonville, to Mountain View and I never ever got the enlisted ranks figured out. I could tell an officer from an enlisted guy most of the time though, but when I was in the Air Force I just saluted the hell out of everybody I ran into because I was never quite sure... Seriously though, WTF is a Yeoman 1st class anyway?

I never saluted the wrong rank but I had other members from non AF branches salute me when I wore my blue USAF sweater that had silver and blue rank insignia pins on the eppilets (sorry about spelling). Not all the branches enlisted ranks wore rank insignia on their sweaters the way we did and definitely from a distance it did resemble officer insignia especially since they looked a lot like silver bars. if they were fresh out of basic I would stop them and nicely explain the difference when I had time then we would smile and laugh and continue about our day.

The beret in the beginning was hell for old guys to pick out the diff btwn a unit crest or rank. It confused me once or twice.

I went to my nephew's basic training graduation for the Navy in 2013. I was saluted as I walked in by the graduating recruits. I was a sergeant first class in the army.

Another story I heard from AFROTC. Students in their Junior and Senior year were cadet "officers." To denote this, we got shoulder boards. The rank was very similar to Navy Commissioned Officers. Some of my fellow students went to a "3LT" program, where they worked with AD to gain experience. A few of them went to Navy bases. As you can imagine, there were stories of Seabees giving them odd looks and, more often than not, salutes!

As a young enlisted, I too saluted a naval Master Chief. He also laughed and explained the top 3 of navy. I also agree, it's better to salute wrongly than not at all.

I can relate to this happening, however, it was kind of a reverse situation. I was the one being saluted. When I returned from Vietnam in 1967 I was stationed at the Yakima Firing Range in Washington State. Shortly after my arrival, I got into a "little" trouble and honestly, it was nothing serious, a minor infraction of the UCMJ. But unfortunately, an overzealous 2lt, thought it was serious enough to take away 2 strips. I was demoted from E4 to E2. Anyway, at Yakima, there are many reservists who train there on the weekends. If I happened to be in, my Class A uniform I was often mistaken for an officer. No strips, a couple of rows of ribbons, a CIB, 2 overseas bars, and a hash mark and not strips, "must be an officer". Some guys would hesitate but most would salute, just in case, and of course, I would always return the salute. Most of the permanent party of course knew, but it was kind of comical. Even the 1st Sergeant during the morning formation and police call would say, "all E5s and above and E2s over five, fall out. I did get my rank back relatively quickly plus one more.