Salute minus the greeting of the day?

I have to agree; the salute is only half of the deal. I don't consider it acceptable to not acknowledge someone in passing, regardless of rank.

Never have I ever saluted and not given the greeting as well.

When I first arrived to my unit I found my self getting nervous being in the real Army. At first whenever i saw rank I would stumble with my watch and try to get the greeting before walking past the officer. For me it was simpler to just say Sir, Ma'am, Chief. That was a bad habit in it's self. Now I say greeting of the time. Maybe the struggle is not just being lazy but potentially sruggling to have confidence in themselfs when being new to the military. This is just my personal opinion.

It’s possible that it’s learned behavior from the incredible amount of officers that don’t say a word back, snarkily snap back something, “yup” with a lazy salute, or simply don’t return the salute at all.

That doesn’t condone it, but it might be a partial explanation. The salute is a good representation of a soldiers attitude. Attitude generally reflects leadership.

I forgot to mention the creep side stares as they salute....