What is your funniest salute story?

I was leaving Subic Bay after crossing $h!t river and the Marine guard saw scrambled eggs on my San Miguel cap. He snapped to and rendered a smart salute. I responded with a heartfelt, "Carry On, Marine" and hoped he wasn't there when I returned... I was a LCpl then... Magsaysay Drive, here I come!

I was saluted as a SPC many times on Fort Riley. Apparently the sham shield looks like an Oak Leaf from a distance.

I was was a young airman stationed at Hickam, but staying with my older sister and brother in-law ( Navy Captain) at Barbers Point and would drive in to base using his old VW rabbit with his rank on the access stickers. Everyday my buddy at the gate would salute the car as he should. After a while he realized it was just little old airman and he stopped saluting. One day my brother in-law rode in to base with my and I pulled up to the gate, no salute, so for fun I just stayed put , me friend came over to the car and leaned in to see what was up and realized a Navy Captain in the passenger seat, panic set in and he violently stood to salute, smashed his noggin on the car and went to ground. Of course we had to get out to help him back to to his feet and check his welfare. We had a good laugh on the spot, much to the humor of the people behind us in line

In boot camp, we were told if there was ever any confusion over who we should salute, look for a gold chin strap on their cover. That's how I ended up saluting a mailman.....

We had a Lt that we really respected in Afghanistan and when we got home we all basically lined up 6 paces apart and walked by him and saluted him. He could hardly return the salute for laughing so hard as we all were but after about 30 of us went by he finally told us to stop.

Found this today on FB but link is from Instagram. Many of the Marines I served with at HMX-1 are up-in-arms about this video, which shows CIC saluting with a cup of coffee... in his saluting hand. I on the other hand simply found it humorous... After serving 3 years with Bush Sr. and 6 mo. of Clinton, my expectations were suitably altered. I now expect nothing more or less.

http://instagram.com/p/tS-kCoD9l2/

When I was a Captain, I was walking along with one of my Senior NCOs. As we were walking, in the distance we saw a Major headed our way. The NCO did not particularly care for this Major, so he asked me to salute the Major (along with him) with our left hands to see if the Major would notice...anyhow, we passed the Major giving him the greeting of the day and saluting him with our left hands, and the Major just returned the salute and the greeting and went on his way...without a further word. Anyhow, after taking a few more steps, the NCO says "Sir, lets go track down the Major and tell him what we did and that he did not even have a clue!". I said "Sergeant, accept your victory that we got one over on the Major and file it away in your library of stories for when you are at the NCO club. But, lets not mess with the Hornets Nest and risk getting stung when we don't have to!"....and thus another example of the difference between Officers and NCOs.

My first deployment (as a PFC/SPC), our Battery XO would go out of his way to avoid Soldiers he knew while on the way to the gym, PX, etc. to avoid having to salute them (he was in PTs and otherwise unrecognizable as an officer). My section and I caught him off guard one day, lined up about 10 paces apart, in single file. I'm positive I heard him spouting profanities after about the 3rd guy. I'm almost sure he dug a tunnel from his CHU to the gym after that.

I had just graduated AIT at Benning and had a couple of days until Jump school started. One afternoon, I was sitting outside on the steps of a library on post and a female 2LT walked by me. I remained seated and said Hi. She quickly started to chew my ass. I replied, "If I knew you were going to go off like that I wouldn't have even said Hi." Let's just say she freaked out on me a bit more.

I was stationed at Camp Bearcat, HQ of the 9th Inf Div in Vietnam, and warned to memorize the layout because it was going to disappear under a sheet of water during monsoon season. Despite attempts by the engineers to dig deep drainage canals alongside every road, the camp looked like a lake with floating tents when the rains began.

I was riding "shotgun" in a jeep when we approached a LTC walking in the opposite direction and saluted. Just as he returned the salute he stepped into one of the ditches and disappeared from sight. I grabbed the driver by the collar and shouted at him to get the hell out of there. I didn't want the LTC to see me laughing when he surfaced.

I looked back to make sure he survived, but self preservation took precedence over any concern I felt...