What is your funniest salute story?

My funniest Salute happend in Japan. I was taking a break and when entering the Snack Bar I saw a General on the way out. It was in late afyernoon and I Popped a Salute and said GOOD Morning Sir. He just said Good Morning Son. I was sort of embarrest by that. During a trip to Japan while traveling on Space A We landed in Cold Bay Alaska It was very Cold and I was a Courier Gaurd fpr a Captain. He said He was going in the Air Terminal to get a few few bites to eat.As His Guard I had to stay on board the Plane. He Returned shortly after and asked Me if I was hungry and could use a snack but I was not dressed to get out in that cold,He offered me His Coat to wear,I put it on and got off the plane, On the way to the Terminal I passed 2 Leutenants and they both Saluted as they passed. I again Saluted in return. I forgot to cover the Captains Bars on the Coat. We both had a good laugh.

Enlisting in the Air Force during the Korean War, I was given flight crew wings and assigned as security chief to deliver atom bombs to friendly Countries and Islands all over the globe in the humongus C124c Globemaster averaging 21 day flying time per month. To help keep myself sane and not too absorbent of military discipline, I played little games. From 1953-'55 I would show up for each flight in regulation fatigues and as soon as we took off - I took off my fatigue cap and never wore it on the bases we landed on through the whole flight, Of course in towns we wore class A Ike jackets etc. I know, very childish ! On some Pacific island with an identical giant mess hall to all of them, our in flight mechanic who I'd corrupted - and I left our caps aboard ship and took all manner of dodging routes to Lunch in order to avoid the normal dress expectation of those who unknowingly busy themselves on that side of the game. The plan as always was to avoid the front entrance and make our way to the rear loading dock where often KP guys were sitting pealing and trimming vegetables. We were only 2 thirds of the way down the long side of the building when a two star General swung around from the rear of the mess hall and walked briskly towards us. We froze and banged our bare foreheads with stiff salutes as he actually returned ours with an inquisitive smile. I didn't wait to hear the worst which I expected and lamely told him of my game, With a wink as he continued on his way, he joked - " Well, since I wasn't advised as to the rules of your game, he smiled, I'm not joining in " - and off he went.

When I was a new trainee at Ft Monmouth, NJ, as a PFC and then a Corporal, I would on occasion when walking on the main boulevard through the base, when I encountered a "butter bar" LT, I would snap a quick salute with my left hand to see how many of them would salute me back left handed. Surprisingly, it was about 30%. I only had to pull doorknob polishing duty a couple of times over this antic. Kept us laughing.

As an aviation cadet I was walking down the flight line with my parachute over my right shoulder and as I passed a Capt on the flight line I saluted him with a left handed salute. Needless to say I was chewed out for that infraction. I always carried my parachute over my left shoulder after that.

I was Air Force and assigned to III MAF in Nam. I was wearing camo with no insignias on them. As I was entering III MAF headquarters 3 Generals came out with a Col. following. I saluted the Col. stopped me and said Marine why are you wearing that doggy hat. I came to attention and said Airman first class Ronald Hein US Air Force TDA US Marine Corp. He told me the get Air Force stripes on the camos. I never did because being assigned to the Marine Corp we just turned out uniforms in and were given clean ones. I went to the DaNag AFB base to get my pay and was wearing a bush hat. They would not pay me till I got a AF baseball cap. In Nam I was assigned to the USMC for 6 months and USA for 6 months. I spent a whole 5 days with the AF.

I've done that before. I was stationed at Great Lakes for A School. My shipmate and I were coming out of the McDonald's on base, when a Lt. was getting ready to walk into the McDonald's and we were coming out with our hands full. I got so nervous and saluted her with my left hand. My shipmate and I started cracking up once she passed us.

Before I went to Vietnam as a motivated Marine, I always saluted with my right hand.
That all changed when I returned, salty and injured. It was left handed from there on out and I was amazed that the Lt.'s never caught it.
The Gunny , however, said "let me guess", whatta they gonna do, send me to Vietnam"?
We had a few beers and laughed all night. It was the first time I'd laughed since being rotated back.
SEMPER FI

I was walking by the Officer's Club Swimming Pool, at Lowry Air Force Base om my way into the club. I was looking at all the good looking ladies in their swimming suits and didn't notice a Captain walking out of the club who demanded that as a 2nd Lt I salute him. I stated that I did not see him and if his salute was so important, I reminded him that I had to recognize him to salute him To me the ladies were more important!

1968, Fort Benning IOBC June, Several new 2LTs....from all over the States. We car pooled on the weekends. One 2LT from Mississippi explained to five others that he would be a 1LT. In two weeks and he was letting us know ahead of time because he expected a salute from the rest of the “butter bars!”
We laughed so hard.....he stopped the car and said he could lock our heels! It never happened. I went to Ranger School with a smile on my face!
Thanks

In 1975 I was performing my Signals Intelligence functions as a United States Army Security Agency (USASA) Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) NCO at Torii Station, Okinawa Japan, long before Torii Station was designated the U.S. Army Garrison Torii Station in 2011.
It was early morning and a fellow SIGINT NCO, and I were walking to the entry gate to the Secure Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), passing between the cars that were parked in front of the facility. There was a uniformed individual working on his car with the hood up and leaning into the engine compartment. As we were passing, the soldier came out from under the hood and said to us, “Excuse me, Soldiers, don’t you salute officer’s”. It’s then we noticed it was a lieutenant who was working on his car. As we were rendering a salute, a voice from behind us said, “they do, lieutenant, but they don’t salute axxholes”. The voice was that of Colonel David R. Wyszyanski, the station commander who had heard the lieutenant’s verbal admonishment of us.
We got a good chuckle about the Colonel’s admonishment to the lieutenant that morning.
CW4 Stephen Carstensen (Ret)
31 year’s service (encompassing 1967 – 2004)