What is your funniest salute story?

Our AFROTC Commandant of Cadets (Captain) told us the story about when he was first commissioned a 2nd Lt. He was walking out of a building, saw a guy in blue uniform and saluted him. It turns out he saluted the mailman.

Just curious....has any officer on here received a salute from Berghdahl since he came back? I'm just wondering about the experience.

During my first command as a second lieutenant our infantry company had to deploy to Ranger Annex Field 7 in Eglin Air Force Base, Florida to act as guerillas against the Ranger students.

When we arrived there we discovered that the barracks that we were to occupy still contained the previous company of acting “guerillas” so we had to repair to main post to find quarters. Once there, we parked our convoy of trucks on the street and our company commander went into the HQ.

The other officers and I dismounted ourselves and the troops. We fell them in and then gave them “At Rest!” so they could stretch their legs after the hours long ride from Ft. Benning, smoke and joke. This allowed us officers also to stretch our legs, smoke and discuss French poetry and German philosophers.

Though I was aware, as all of us in the Army were, that protocol in the Air Force is somewhat less formal than in the Army we were not quite prepared for what happened next.

A few minutes after we had dismounted an Air Force Lt. Col. approached us en route to the HQ building. Following Army protocol I called the company to attention turned on my heel to face the Lt. Col., snapped out a smart salute and greeted him with a resounding “Good Afternoon, Sir!” He looked up at me, waved casually and said, “Hi there, Lieutenant” without even a pretence of a salute! We all looked at each other a little bemused and silently concluded that he must have been a doctor or something that he didn’t observe protocol. I gave the men “At Rest” again.

A few moments later a full colonel came the other way and again I called the company to attention, saluted sharply and sounded off with, “Good Afternoon, Sir!” He looked at me a little perplexed and says, “Oh, hi, same to you too.”

I returned the men to “at rest” while they and the other officers remarked on the informality of the Air Force.

Yet again a few minutes later another Lt. Col. came our way but this time I was ready for him. As he passed in front of us I waved to him casually and said “Hi there, Colonel.” He smiled and said, “Hi there, Lieutenant. It’s a great day isn’t it?” and sauntered on his way.

Indeed, it was a great day or at least an amusing one.

For those of you not familiar with Navy Petty Officer ranks, a Petty Officer Second Class (E5) and Petty Officer First Class (E6) who has 12 or more years of "continuous good conduct" is authorized to wear gold chevrons in place of red chevrons. Combine this with wearing the Navy "coveralls" uniform, the one that looks like something a grease monkey mechanic would wear. So now you're looking at a person with tiny gold rank insignias on their collar. Combine this with the fact that I was 37 years old at the time and had been in the Navy longer than some Sailors and Marines (I was stationed on an Amphibious ship so we carried Marines) had been alive. Marines are already taught to salute anything shiny or gold.

We were inside the ship so no actual salute, but the Marines would stop, come to attention, and scream "Good morning SIR!" The first few times I would correct the Marine by saying "Take it easy, I'm a Petty Officer First Class, equivalent to a Staff Sergeant." But since there were a few hundred Marines on my ship it was a never-ending journey. It got to the point where I would just say "Good morning Marine, carry on" or if I felt like being an asshole I'd say "What's so fucking good about it Marine?"

As an E-4 while stationed in Wildflecken Germany in the 90's we were still wearing the BDU's. Which we all know had some black camo in it. Well on my cap, in the front, above the bill, just right of where the seam comes together it just happens to be that there was one spot of black. Spaced far enough from my rank that together they looked like subdued CPT's bars if you looked quickly or from afar.
I'm walking into the PX with a buddy and this 2nd LT. comes walking out, takes a quick look and salutes me as he walks past. Then stops, turns around and has me at attention saying that I need to fix it so LT's don't go around looking like asses saluting a lower enlisted. True story.

Being AMEDD, we are "cut from a different cloth". Typically, the bearing is almost too lax, especially for those in Combat Arms. However, I think of 2 stories that make me laugh, and shake my head.

First one is "My bad". I was working on getting rid of the car seat, as we were looking at transporting Soldiers to and from a local post. As I'm standing up with my car seat in my left hand, my keys in my right, 2 SPC walk by and say, "Good afternoon CPT" and salute. Before I could catch myself, I snapped the return salute....WITH my keys in my hand. After that, the involuntary "Fuck.....*groan*" escaped as I mentally chided myself for the stupidity.

Second was when I was mobilized as a 1LT to Ft McCoy. We were transitioning offices, and I was walking to grab things from one building to transfer. A SPC walking up to us sees me, and I see the panicked look building in his eyes as he has his hands full with 6-8 binders of our SOPs. Once it finally clicks what he wants, I was probably 10 paces from him when I did the "nonnonono" hand gestures and told him not to salute. He gets the sigh of relief and says, "Thank you Sir." At this point, I laughed and told him that a simple greeting when your hands are full is sufficient, so he wouldn't feel the same fear again. However, I had a mental flashback of our SOPs flying all over Ft McCoy because he dropped the binder......*shudder*. Not fun there.
v/r,
CPT Butler

I was a 2LT at Ft. Lee. Our unit was was doing a logistics exercise as part of a mobilization. Somehow we found ourselves having to go to a DFAC on the AIT side of the base. I was walking next to my NCOIC when we walked by two Privates who looked confused and rendered a slow salute, I returned the salute and kept walking. Next thing I know my NCOIC tells me he'll catch up and I see him approach the group of Privates. Later I found out that they were confused because they "didn't know what a gold bar meant". I didn't really hear the end of that one for a while.

I was at a PX at Ft. McCoy Wisconsin. There was a soldier standing in front of the store with a cell phone talking. He made to salute me as I approached and he dropped his expensive smart phone, which shattered on impact onto the concrete. That I think is my most hilarious salute story. I felt bad for the soldier because he did the right thing, but I couldn't help laughing.

When I was a cadet I was up at Ft. Richardson, AK doing CTLT (Cadet Troop Leadership Training). I was walking across one of the parking lots to an admin building when I noticed a Major that had come out of the building heading to his car. I was just about to salute him when he saluted me first and said "Good Morning Sir." Shocked that a Major was saluting ME, I saluted back, said good morning, and kept on walking. I got about 8 steps when he hollers out "Wait a minute." I turned around and he walked up to me, looked at my rank, and said "Damn, for a second I thought you were the youngest Colonel I'd even seen." Shook his head, laughed, and headed out.

For those of you who don't know, the rank insignia for a Cadet is a silver round circle. It looks almost exactly like a Lt. Colonel's rank.

I was on my first TDY as a brand new butterbar obtained by civilian commission in Desert Shield/Storm at Myrtle Beach AFB. I was finishing medical school and until I had my MD, i was assigned as a clerk. My job was to check ID when the guys staging for overseas came through and verify order sets making sure the right people were in the right line. I had dropped something and while I was bent down getting it from under the table, I heard a swoosh! And everything got quiet. I looked out from undet the table and everybody in the room was standing at attention. As I sat in my chair, I saw this O5 walking briskly across the room toward me. When he got to me, I asked if I could help him with anything. It was at that point I learned one should stand when O5 walks in. Once I hit attention, I forgot to salute. He kept asking me if I had forgotten something. I finally realized what he meant and after a few choice words, he went on his way. Never made that mistake again. By the time I hit MIMSO almost a year and a half later, I was already the pro.