Posted on Jul 9, 2014
SFC Steven Borders
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Out of curiosity how many members have saluted the wrong rank working on a Joint Base or Assignment. With me working on JBAB (Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling) it has happened a couple times. I find it hard to recognize the Navy ranks sometimes at a distance. And found myself saluting a Chief. I have always followed the rule "when in doubt whip it out". Most just laugh and we carry on about our day. Would love to hear some stories.
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SGT Ruben Lozada
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Good afternoon SFC Steven Borders. Excellent post. Thank You for sharing this. Excellent question. It can be very confusing if a Military member works on another base. Unfortunately, I started out as active duty Navy and had no issues im recognizing enlisted and officer ranks. To include warrent officers. But, when I switched to active Army it became a little confused. One instance would be when I was at a MEPS and an Army Capta came out for a briefing. At first I thought She was going to introduce Herself as Lieutenant so and so. Caught Me off guard when She addressed Herself as Captain so and so. Ironically, when I used to be Army Reserves, I had an advantage of recognizing the ranks. Caught an E-8 (Senior Chief Petty Officer) off guard one time by addressing Him as Senior.
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SPC Joel Quey
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I'm pretty sure everyone who's been on a joint base has done so. It was always "fun" walking around at dusk, trying to squint at people's ranks as they walked by to figure out if that bird on their hat meant they were a petty officer, or a full-bird colonel...
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CDR Scott Buck
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While attending the University of Washington under the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Program (E5/Officer Candidate), I demoted an Air Force Colonel by saluting his eagle, but saying, “Good morning Captain.” I woke up three steps later that he was wearing Air Force blue, Not Navy blue. I kept on moving away.
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PO2 Christopher Foss
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Edited >1 y ago
I will admit to once having been a bad boy and getting into an NCO club on an AF base because noone there understood Navy ranks. I was an E4 and the NCO club of the time started access at E5.

As a rationalization, the NCO club had a kitchen and I was traveling.
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CPO Chris Zwolinski
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When we first got to Afghanistan I used to get saluted and called Colonel for at least a week. Mostly by O1-O3s, almost all of them Air Force. I was a Navy E6 at the time and they were saluting me and the E3s and E4s. They didn't understand the chevrons on the eagle of our rank signified we were enlisted. Happened when we first got there and when our replacements came in.

The funniest was the E4s that were making fun of the officers that had no idea what they were doing while we were in the line for chow at Bagram. The Command Master Chief was in line behind them and asked if they were having a good time. A lot of red faced E4s all at once.
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Capt Mark Strobl
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Back in the early ‘90’s, there wasn’t a CPO, SCPO, not MCPO on NAS North Island that I haven’t saluted.

Most of those salty dogs just returned my salutation with their own, “Carry On, sir!”
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Sgt Chris Fisher
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I was stationed at Herbert Defence Complex in New Orleans in the early 80's. That place was crawling with Navy Chiefs with shiny rank insignias on their lapels. I saluted a bunch of them until I got the system down. Better safe than sorry.
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SGM Randolph Watkins
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I was supporting an Army Reserve MATC at Fort Bragg during Desert Shield. No matter where I went on post I was constantly being saluted by officers and enlisted alike. Finally I asked one soldier why he saluted me. He was slight embarrassed, but replied that the next time I was at the post exchange look at the photo of the post commander. I did and at a distance, we could have been twins. I also found out that civilians thought they could tell active duty soldiers for reservists. A civilian from the Pentagon entered our MILPO where I was at the copy machine. He asked me where the reserve unit was. I replied that he had found it. He replied, "But you don't look like a reserve!" What are reserists supposed to look like?
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Cpl Craig Howard
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We all look for "Shine" on the collar, and that triggers a salute. The Navy screws that up for all of us.
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CW2 Matt Baum
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In the BDU days, it was difficult to differentiate SPC and LTC collar insignia. I was in the AF, in Italy, and nearly saluted a "seasoned" E4, or two.
Later, in my Army days, I breezed right by a young LTC at Air Assault. He was the in charge of the course, and not impressed that he was blown off by a butter bar. I mean, the "sir" looked like he was about 12 and was playing with a dog in the parking lot. Pretty sure I was one of the first ones he DQ'd out on the lanes. *face palm*
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