Being addressed/addressing others by rank after retirement

I respond to most everyone by their rank (if it is known), as a sign of respect! Their are a very few whom I will look forward to greeting them with the 'your number one sign'...

For me it depends. If, for example, I knew you as a CMSgt, and you retired, but we were never really peers, nor friends away from Military, I would probably just call you Chief unless asked otherwise...because that is where our relationship stopped.

The same would hold for an Officer, unless we had a personal relationship (which harkens back to the Fraternization topic in another thread, so we will leave that one alone).

And for some the military never seems to leave: some guys will always be Colonel or Chief or Top, because it is so much in their DNA or personality that it just fits.

But truly at the end of the day, it is kind of like a blend between requests, respect and and personality: My name is James, I prefer to be called James, but some cannot wrap their heads around that and call me Jim, Jimbo or Jimmy, depending on what part of the country we happen to be in, although I intro as James...when I ask to be called James, after being addressed as Jimmy, should that offend you? No, because it is my preference...to some degree the same would hold with the rank title..but like most it would really fall into the respect category, because if, after you are retired, you are trying to push it, then...you may not have my respect, because if you did, it would be you asking me to call you John.....and not maintaining the formality.

MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca , I feel that I am right there with the second category. However, I always show respect to retired officers by calling them sir/ma'am. It just doesn't/wouldn't feel right going from saluting someone to calling them Joe.

I have about 5 more years to go until I punch and to be honest it really doesn't make a difference to me if I'm called by my rank or my first name. In my opinion my rank is my pay grade and not who I am! It is a responsibility level and yes was it earned of course, but that's my accomplishment and I done feel that it should be forced on others. Retired means just that! Go out honorably and let people that truly respect you the option to call you by your rank or first name. Too many people get wrapped around their egos! Get over yourselves!

MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca Sir, I agree. When I address persons who were / are senior to me either currently or in the past, I address them using their rank. If I know a service member who is senior to me, and with whom I have a relationship with, then privately their may be a first name basis. Respect is what sets us apart from many others.

CAT2. Clearly if an individual has retired from the military, served admirably, and continues to lead a life as a productive citizen, then there is no cost to me, nor harm than affording them the respect they have earned. In most cases, they downplay the address, but I think it is a part our military tradition that should remain.

For a retiree I call them "sir" or "ma'am" if I don't know their rank. If I do know their rank, I call them by their rank if they are enlisted, as I would were they serving. For an officer, I'd call them sir/ma'am or use their rank if referring TO them.

For people with whom I served directly, who are not retired (ie, they are "Private Freakin' Civilians"), I call them by their first name. And when anyone addresses me, I ask them to call me by my first name because my rank did not carry over into civilian status.

I will respect the fact that one has donned the uniform and served their country. However, once you take that uniform off you take off that rank as well. I believe that in certain professional situations addressing the retiree by rank is deserved but not to be done without preceding it with the word "retired", i.e. in a professional public forum that would be a guest speaker for example. I've seen personally that once one earns a rank whether it be of a senior enlisted or commissioned they feel that their former rank holds bearing on active duty personnel. But this is just my $.02.

I guess it depends on the person and their rank. I do still call my friends by their last name though... and call me by mine.

I shall follow Forrest Gump's example when speaking to Lt Dan.