Do I need to render a salute to an officer when my hands are occupied?

You are correct. If your hands are full you are not required to render a salute.

Snip

Greeting of the day is all that is required. If your CSM is too stupid to read the regulation, he is defiantly too stupid to be a CSM.

Sounds like your CSM has a bad case of self-importance!

With small object move to left hand and render a salute. Large objects render a verbal greeting...common sense abd respect.

I agree with the LTC on this one. If the CSM wants to reprimand anybody, then fine. Have the CSM or whatever enlisted lower rank to hold the article in your right hand and salute the officer if it’s that big of a deal to that officer. I know a CW3 who gets tired of saluting all the time. So if the Cpt doesn’t have a superiority complex, the captain will understand.

The right answer is what the regulation says. Keep a copy in your pocket for the officers who can find it for themselves.

Read the Regulations for your branch of service. However I think they are likely to be all the same on this subject, YES. You cannot go wrong following the Regulation.

As some one who’s been on both sides of this technically no. However where the CSM may have gotten you is could the binder and mug been carried in the same hand, the last part is “so occupied as to make saluting impractical.”

Normally I would say who cares. An attempt at proper costumes was made so good enough.

I think however it really depends on the situation. Would it have been easy to consolidate both items in one hand? If yes then you probably should have.

In this case it's hard to say. How big was the binder, how big was the mug, did it have a lid, was it full of coffee or empty, etc.

That's why I don't bother trying to "correct" people on situations like this