What is your funniest salute story?

First of all, I thought I was the only one that had one, lol. Right after basic I had just finished grocery shopping. I am left handed so had the groceries in my right arm as I was walking back to my car. A Major approached me as I panicked. My mind raced as he quickly approached and I deciphered what to do. That left hand FLEW up before I knew what was happening. The major God Bless Him, saluted me back as he chuckled under his breath.

I was walking alongside a Lt. Col. one day when I spied two Specialists walking toward us. The two quickly crossed the street as they saw my walking partner and averted their eyes as they passed. After a few steps I realized what had occurred and asked, "Sir, did they salute you?" 'No,' came the reply. "Pardon me a moment, sir." I chased down the Specialists and asked why they hadn't saluted. 'We didn't see him,' they answered. "Bull$#i7," I replied. "Look, there is only ONE thing that we enlisted can make an officer do, and that is return our salute. That guy wanted to be an officer? Okay! I'm gonna make him salute me back!" I saw a little glitter go off in each of their eyes. I returned to the Lt. Col. and said, "I don't think they'll make that mistake again, sir." He replied, 'Good job!'

We were deployed to Prince Sultan AB in Saudi Arabia. My buddy and I were walking back to our barracks one early evening and heard the Nation Anthem playing. It seemed unusual and very faint so I quickly looked around and there was no movement in the area. (It just happened to be a coincidence there were no vehicles being operated in the area and no one else visible from where we were standing).
I saluted in the direction I thought the Flag was located and my buddy followed suit. We were both in the Air National Guard at the time but I was prior service and he wasn't which was why he thought I knew what I was doing. About 30 seconds into the salute a truck came by and I thought 'that un-Patriotic SOB'. A few seconds after that a small group of people walked from behind the large Alaskan shelter tent and chuckled a bit. They didn't say anything probably because they were E-2's and E-3's and I was an E-5 and my buddy was E-6. I'm a little slow but it was at that point I realized why we looked like two jackasses. We were standing next to the movie theater tent and they were playing the Anthem to begin the movie! We continue our walk to the barracks where the conversation turned to him saying " your not going to tell anyone about this are you" to which I replied "you can count on me"!

I remember back in basic training I was walking back from sick call...only 3 days in...and this Jeep kept circling around me and coming back. Finally it stopped and the officer said “soldier what’s your unit” so I told him. He said “don’t you know what this flag on this Jeep means ?” I replied no. Well I am the base commander and you are supposed to salute me when I pass by. So up went my hand. He said that’s better and moved on. Then he went on to explain that I am to salute cars with blue decals on them. I found myself saluting every car. When I got back to my unit my CO called me in her office and made me salute a tree for 2 hours outside of her office. Something you never forget!

Not exactly a salute story but I ran with a guy named Fred Major. He was at the head one day taking a leak. There was a major at one of the urinals near him. One of Fred's buddies came in and said to Fred: 'Hey Major, hows it hanging?' The major turned around and asked 'who the hell you think your talking to Airman! Fred showed the major his mane tag and defused the situation. I see Fred every once in a while and always ask him how it hanging major?

After serving in Vietnam, I returned to go to college while serving in the Navy Reserve. One summer I had a temporary assignment to Washington D.C. to work at the Washington Navy Yard. Going to lunch, I walked out of a building straight into the sun. A group of people were walking toward me to enter the building. When my eyes adjusted to the sun, there was Admiral Zumwalt, Chief of Naval Operations and his whole cadre saluting an E5 as I strolled past them. When I finally saw them, I tried to return the salute but they had just passed. Now I tell my friends and family that I was so important that the Chief of Naval Operations saluted me.

While in basic training at Ft. Knox in February, 1977, I was walking across a parking lot on a rainy, windy day. I met a Captain going the opposite direction and rendered the proper salute. His cover blew off in the wind and was rolling across the lot and he ordered me to catch it for him. I was running after his cover at a good clip when his cover abruptly stopped, but I couldn't! I stepped on his cover smashing it and getting it filthy in the mud. I took it back and handed it to him expecting an ass chewing. He didn't say a word. He couldn't. I had essentially fulfilled his illegal order to attend to his personal property.

Standing at salute in formation during basic training a bird left a mess on my hat, dripped down my face. I maintained stance!

It was winter outside and I was walking back to the ship from the phone booth @ end of pier. I saw an officer approaching I was still an E3 I had my work uniform on and my green work coat. I put my head down so it appeared I wasn’t looking up at him. As we were about to pass he says to my as he rendered a salute afternoon sir and saluted me. I kind of glanced up and said carry on sailor without saluting hands still in my pockets. Oh did I mention I had a gold check mark on my ballcap from giving money to unicef I believe. He didn’t know my rank so he saluted me. Boot camp

When I was in basic training at Fort McClellan in 1977, our company was being marched to a training class one day not long after we had learned how to salute officers. As we prepared to enter the building, some officers came out, and one of them held the door open for us as we filed single-file into the building. We all saluted, and the officers graciously returned all of our salutes. Our drill sergeants were shaking their heads and hiding their eyes, and the officers were laughing. We thought it was just because they had to return so many salutes at one time. Once we got into the classroom, our drill sergeants were quick to educate us... We had not been told that when in formation or moving as a group, only one person salutes for the whole group!