What is your funniest salute story?

I was a Sergeant and as Soldier of the Month was invited to sit on the Parade Stand with all the Brass. I sat next to a General who asked me if I was intimidated by all the Rank around me. "No, Sir."
"Why not Sergeant?" "Well Sir, you only have two stars...I have three stripes." For a moment I thought he was going to move me down to two stripes. Instead, he laughed out loud and said: For the rest of the day you will give three salutes to every Officer. " And I did. Sgt Kevin Hughes, 25th Inf. Div.

I was in Vietnam with the 4th. Infantry Division, happened to be in the Base Camp (Camp Enari) and was still a PFC. They made us do "police call" in the field and I was wearing my CO's 45 ACP, since I was to go into Pleiku later and wanted to be armed. We were doing this police call 12 abreast and this FNG, a private, was policing next to me and noticed my .45. He thinks, "This must be an officer....he's wearing a pistol!" He gets my attention, salutes me and asks me if I would like him to police wrappers and cigarette butts FOR ME and him! Man, did I break into laughter! Never did tell him I was a PFC, though my rank insignia was on my sleeve!

One day in Bagram Afghanistan my Maj and I were walking to the DFAC and there were two young privates walking towards us and one was carry a box with food, when the Soldiers approach us they saw the Major and the empty handed PVT saluted and with his left hand placed it over the other Soldiers head gear and saluted for him. Before I can react my Major said Private WHAT ARE YOU DOING and he said saluting for my battle buddy sir, we had to explain that while his battle buddy hands were full only he salutes. When we got to the DFAC I have never laughed so hard in my life.

I was in Crailsheim Germany 1982 I was walking and walking towards me was a major i saluted the major and I didn’t forgot I had a cigarette in my mouth i saluted the major and kept on walking,I took a deep breath thinking that I was safe.when suddenly I heard the major private Rodriguez get down give me 20 and sound off that was my craziest salute ever

Boot camp, practicing salutes after chow in the mirror. Marching, halting and busting a crisp salute out. I walked up, maintaining pristine military bearing, busted out my best salute and said “Good afternoon, sir” my MTI yelled at me “It’s good morning, dummy!” Being a good airman I promptly yelled out while maintaining that crisp line “Good morning, dummy!” My MTI lost his military bearing for the first and only time for the duration of boot camp.

This may not be a funny story, but it is a well-deserving one. I was driving the Battalion Commander to a field operation after a heavy rainfall in Washington State at Fort Lewis. We came upon a body of water covering the road and I asked him if we should drive around it. He told me to continue onward. So, I drove 'onward' and we ended up nose-diving into the HUGE dip in the road and started sinking. We jumped onto the hood of the jeep I was driving and then jumped onto the dry land. We had to run back to the main highway because my feet got wet from the water that flooded into the jeep and thought that would keep my feet from freezing. Finally, we came upon a car that was heading from Fort Lewis. She recognized that I was a female and chose to stop and ask if we needed help. I saw stars on a hat on her passenger seat which had more stars than my commanders. I mentioned it to my commanding officer. He also thought that it must belong to her and we saluted her and stated our situation. It turns out the hat belonged to her child son and they were just coming back from a friends on the base. She was so embarrassed by the salute and we all started laughing. But, the best part was, she drove us back to our unit. We were able to 'salute' her back with a merit for her kind troubles. It is a great memory for me.

In the airborne units we greeted our officers with "All the Way" as we saluted them and they returned our salute with "Airborne". I met a none airborne officer and saluted him one day and had to stand at attention and be rescued by a passing NCO who convinced him that I did not order him to get out of my way.

When I arrived at my first duty station (Ft. Carson); Two other privates and I was walking from the Mess Hall and a jeep passed by. All of a sudden the Jeep stopped and reversed back toward us and a General asked us a question. He said "Do you know why you are all privates?" we jump to attention and said No Sir in unison. He said "because you don't salute jeeps" and told us next time we see a vehicle like his again salute.

I was just out of boot camp and I had just walked out of the dentist office with a numb mouth and gums when I met a Navy officer as I approached the PX. I snapped a sharp salute but he just frowned me and ignored me. I stopped him with a loud , "Sir don't you return salutes to Marines?" He replied, "Not when they have a cigarette hanging from the side of their mouth private!" Ouch.

After an incident with a truck, I lost my rank and had become a "slick sleeve." It was threatening rain and I was wearing my 1505's (USAF) with a rain cover on my cap. Two officers walked by and threw me a salute.......which I promptly returned. They got about 5 feet before they realized what they had done. One of them yelled, "AIRMAN!" He proceeded to read me the riot act to which I responded, "Hey, you saluted ME. I was just returning the respect. He had no argument and moved on