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

If you haven’t learned from your first two mistakes… on approaching this situation on your third try (mistake) if you haven’t understood what to do just…stop 6-10 steps away; empty your hands assume the front lean and rest; push until you are are told to recover. Then seriously consider if you are in the right place. Military is built on customs and traditions for a reason. Not for you to make excuses why you can’t follow them.

I'm not sure a "binder and a mug" would pass as a load that required both hands, that is typically relegated to larger items that you need to use both hands for safety. Now obviously my knowledge of this issue is Air Force and from ancient times, but there you go, don't carry stuff in your right hand. CSM was correct.

@SGT Gianna Martin This piece of insanity is still being beat to death - for over 3 years! Simply put, Sgt Martin seems to be a slow learner - it has happened to him on two occasions!. He needs to quit looking for excuses to not render a salute and do so with pride! The CSM was correct in making an on the spot correction. I found during my service that a person digging up AR Regs to figure out how to abuse the reg was normally just a troublemaker - deserving to be reprimanded. As for a lot of the responses to this insane question... Get your heads out of rectal defilade and think before you respond! Check out the attached Custom and Courtesies document and pay attention to figure 9-7. That's what it means to have your hands full!
https://media.defense.gov/2014/Feb/21/ [login to see] /-1/-1/1/140221-N-ZZ182-5356.pdf

The right answer is to salute because the binder could and should have been tucked under your left arm and coffee held in your left hand. To me it would have appeared as if you purposely ensured both hands were unnecessarily occupied

If a service member is burdened or encumbered, a salute is not required but an acknowledgement is. Even if it’s a nod and a greeting “Afternoon Captain” would be sufficient.

However your coffee cup isn’t what I consider being encumbered. Either put the mug down, put it in the other hand with your binder or pass it to someone else.

Good lord, man...you're not some domesticated servant, and some circumstances will not be amenable to the customary courtesies. The CSM was for whatever reason a bit more strident than necessary...but that presupposes you could not salute, versus situating yourself such that you felt you could deny the normal courtesy. Broadly, avoid such situations. It's part of the culture, and does not diminish anyone. If you literally could n8t, you needn't...a verbal greeting suffices.

Playing devils advocate here, but couldn’t you have switched both items to your left hand for all of 10 seconds and saluted? But you are correct, AR 600-25 does stay if you are carrying stuff in both hands or doing something that makes saluting impractical, the appropriate greeting of the day is fine. While this is a fine example of yet another CSM who doesn’t know regulations, choose your battles my guy.

Suggest you make better choices when walking around knowing you might have to salute, such as not walking around with a full mug in a salute area. I can't imagine ever having so much stuff I wouldn't be able to salute when walking around regular base areas. Unless I was moving something heavy in which case it wouldn't have been an issue and I would have taken the cause up with my 1st Sgt that they were being out of touch with reality demanding a salute while your hands were "truly" full with something heavy. A mug just doesn't cut the mustard here.

So this is where you have to pay close attention to regs. The full piece you're looking at is
"Carrying articles with both hands so occupied as to make saluting impractical."
So I can't say based on the size of the items but assuming they were roughly the average size one can assume, You should move the mug to to your left hand, tuck the binder up under your arm, render the salute, then return the mug back to your free hand once able to do so.

That particular stipulation was put up with the idea of being situations where you are actively working with both hands. For example if you were holding something up with both hands, that's a time when saluting would be impractical.

The ultimate answer is, if you can arrange the things in your arms to render the salute. You probably should.

You raise a great question. Per AR 600-25, you are correct. When you walk outdoors with your hands full, you may not render a salute--technically. Your vignette, though, indicates that you placed yourself within a “gray area” that affords you an opportunity to self-evaluate and learn.

First, since you serve as an NCO, I assume that you didn’t fill your hands on purpose to avoid saluting officers. That is a trick one might expect from a member of the alleged “E4 Mafia,” but not a professional who has adhered to the NCO creed. Therefore, I assume you had the best intentions.

This leads us to another point of exploration: What kind of mug were you carrying: paper mug from Starbucks? Ceramic Mug? Or, did you have sealed travel mug?

When I was a young LT in 3rd Infantry Division, the Command Policy prohibited walking around outside with an open container (coffee cup, open soda can, etc.). The policy didn’t appear to make much sense to me from a personal perspective, but I found it a “small ask” from a professional, good order, and discipline perspective. So, I never walked out and about with an open container. And, by force of habit, I obtained a sealed travel mug that I could stow in a cargo pocket or in my backpack. If I bought coffee at the PX, I would pour it into the travel mug and stow it until I reached my destination. Even after deploying with it around the world, that mug still goes in my backpack every morning when I head into the office.

I suspect that the CSM may have intuitively given you heartburn, because--at least subconsciously--the CSM knew you probably shouldn’t have had the open container in hand, even if the CSM did not know to articulate the point.

Now, if you implement the same practice, then you will have an open right hand to render the respect the commissioned officer deserves, and that officer can, in turn, render the same respect that you deserve right back with their salute.

Next, the binder: While I never ran across a policy that prohibited me from toting one while walking in the open air, I found it preferable to tuck a big binder in my backpack as well, for ease and comfort. When I carried around a “brain book” to keep my notes and appointments, I made SURE it would slip into my cargo pocket, to keep my hands free.

As a matter of AR 600-25’s provisions: while the regulation may not state as much, it typically applies to boxes or other heavy or bulky singular items REQUIRING two hands to carry. As such, you will need to apply common sense to balance between your cargo and requisite pomp and circumstance we rely on as an institution to retain and convey honor and respect to one another as fellow Soldiers.

These provide you with a few new habits that will preserve your military bearing and keep you out of trouble. Now, make sure you pass this tidbit down to the younger Soldiers, as well.