Anyone saluted the wrong rank working on a Joint Base?

Salute it if it Shines, comes to Mind what's left...

When I was a WO1, I was in an exercise in Japan. We had multi service involved and one foggy dark morning, and individual and I came around the same corner almost running directly into each other. Both of quickly looked up and saw a silver bar in the dark. We saluted each other really quick giving the morning greeting and moved out. A few days later we ran into each other and recognized each other and talked about it. We laughed almost to crying. Not sure if that counts but……

I'm sure I probably have but I don't remember. Having a Senior Moment. Bet the chief was more than happy to let you know that it wasn't necessary since his "Parents were Married" LOL! Ah Fond Memories of my Time as Master at Arms Commander Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Washington, DC. My Office was at the Navy Yard but I spent a great deal of time over at Anacostia and was in Air Force Housing at Bolling.

Soldiers are bad to salute anything gold, so navy chiefs in Khakus with golden anchors on their collars often took mistaken salutes. Marines occasionally saluted Army enlisted in class A’s because the shoulder DUIC would fling in sunlight!

OMG! All the time. The air force guys would come to the shop I worked at and saluted me all the time and called me ma'am and officer. I was only a e-4. But the crow on my collar looked like officer birds. One gold one black. But the air force guys saw a bird on the collar and would salute. Some times I loved it, but it was weird when officers where doing it and though I was either ranked with them or higher. I educated the enlisted guys so they wouldn't look like fools anymore, but I never knew what to do for the officers. LOL Maybe I should have spoken up but there was something funny about officers saluting a enlisted first

So, I was Navy and I was sent TAD to an AFSOC school at Hurlburt Field in Florida. At the time, I was a 22 year old E-5. Our rank insignia is a crow perched above two chevrons, which clearly many unsuspecting Air Force members took for being the youngest full bird colonel in history. Doors held open, salutes, the whole nine yards. I would just say “I’m enlisted too, carry on.” and keep it moving.

In their defense, Naval Special Warfare was utilizing different uniforms than the regular navy at the time and our rank set dead center in the middle of our chest and was difficult to see. They saw the bird and just immediately whipped the salute out. It was an interesting 3 weeks, especially at the chow hall.

Not really the question, but in my 2nd to last week of BT my squad buddy and I thought it would be funny to impersonate officers to some of the newbees (newer than us, at least) by wearing black 1st LT & Capt. ranks respectively (on our OD greens w/ softcaps), when just as we had "pulled rank" on a couple of groups of approaching newbees as they went by us, we saw an approaching MP Jeep, and barely managed to get all the bars off before they were close enough to bust our asses. The joke we played on the new people really did crack us up, but almost getting caught sobered us up immediately as well, and we never tried anything like that again...whew!

I have no clue how many specialists i saluted during my 8 years! Looks like at LT Col subdued! But their confusion was evident on their faces and was kind of funny!

As a SPC I was saluted by a 1sg. Granted it was dark an all he could see was the subdued insignia, so it was likely a "when in doubt" situation. I just returned the salute.
He saw me later in the light, grumbled and carried on.

It can be confusing at times. E-1 to E-6 are known as Petty Officers. E-7 is Chief Petty Officer. E-8, One star on fouled anchor collar device is called Senior Chief P.O. or Senior for short. E-9, Master Chief P.O., or a Command Master Chief P.O. (CMDCM), He or She would also have a star inside their rocker on their dress uniform. Now at this E-9 rank You also have a Fleet/Force Master Chiif P.O. They can be distinguished by the gold Fleet or Force pin on the left pocket of thier worn khakis. Highest enlisted rank would be an E-10 or a Master Chief P.O. of the Navy. They have three stars over their fouled anchor and one star within their rocker on their dress uniform. They are only seen at certain times. Then You have the Warrant Officers (WO1 to WO4). Then You have the O-1 Ensign, O-2 Lieutenant Junior Grade, O-3 Lieutenant, O-4 Lieutenant Commander. All four grades are considered junior officers. Usually an O-4 is an Executive Officer on a small ship. Or can be a Commanding Officer of a shore command unit. O-5 Commander, O-6 Captain (Usually called Skipper by some. 0-7 Rear Admiral Lower Half, O-8 Rear Admiral Upper Half, 0-9 Vice Admiral, O-10 Admiral. Fleet Admirals are no longer used. One Fleet Admiral would be Admiral Chester Nimitz. A carrier was named in His honor as well, USS Nimitz (CVN-68). I hope all this helps out in any eay possible, because I just this all by memory as well.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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!”

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.

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?

We all look for "Shine" on the collar, and that triggers a salute. The Navy screws that up for all of us.

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*