What’s the proper way to correct someone when not saluting an officer?

If the US ARMY wanted you to have feelings, they would have issued them, correct the problem, loud and proud, so they will remember it and it will not happen again

How I would have handled it.

To Major: excuse me Sir, I'll be back in a minute.

:Walk to PFC:

To PFC: Hey PFC [name]. This isn't me jumping down your throat but this is what I noticed. (Proceed to explain)

In most situations I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

Leadership begins with leading. If the PFC failed to salute a leader will correct the situation, calmly, with clear purpose and without animus. If the PFC felt emotionally stressed by a reminder of standards the PFC in question will benefit from an improvement in maturity through experiencing stress and surviving it. As I recall from my days in the Navy the usual standard in such situations is that the Junior Officer or NCO present performs the admonition which permits the Senior Officer to ignore the slight. As to the "aggression" - please - we are in the military - aggression is the very center piece of our profession, our soldiers should be able to handle the stress of a mild rebuke when they screw up.

An on the spot correction is necessary and I always used the tone of voice that let the guilty party know if best never happen again in my sight.

This is a very hard question to answer. Trying to correct the PFC's misconduct in front of others and in public. Should the be called out in front of the officers or taken aside and and corrected. In all my years of supervising others I can't think of a time I corrected an officer or staff member in front of others unless it was in dangerous or life threatening situation. I was a supervisor in in a prison for over 20 years which had military type ranks.

This situation calls for good old fashioned wall to wall counciling.

Would also remind the LT and Maj(respectfully, of course!) that saluting isn't about courtesy, it's about respect and not getting a salute is disrespectful. If you don't respect yourself, neither will anyone else. I notice most medical types tend to be less stringent on those kind of things.

There was nothing wrong with asking that question to the PFC. The PFC could have gotten destroyed by a Sr NCO. Now with the Major you need to know which battles to fight. Officers will speak their mind and you have to listen, however you were not in the wrong for attempting to correct the PFC. So keep upholding the standard and pass that on to the soldiers in your section.

I can see that it is a much kinder, gentler Army then when I was a young officer in the early 1980s. This situation has happened to me many times. I always tried to be professional, yet direct and most of the time the soldier took corrective action Without incident. On occasion it was necessary to jump their ass and in one instance I even took three young soldiers to their first sergeant who was a friend of mine and let him “re-educate.”

You were correct. The Major should have acted, sometime I would say " good morning private" or something to that effect to snap the soldier out of their "trance" and move my right arm to start the salute. This worked well most of the time as failure to salute is usually not deliberate. Some of the duty uniforms now do not emphasize rank insignia and creates a problem.

On this day 43 years ago I went through my first day at Recruit Training Great Lakes, IL.
In my time, You'd gotten a LOT more shit. At my first non-training command I worked in Security while waiting for a school on the NRMC Portsmouth campus.
The Security Officer LT/MSC was a Grunt Corpsman in Vietnam, and when walking around had no issues of pulling exposed gold chains and ear-rings off Corpsmen. Had a Jewelry box full of that stuff. I think if someone had passed HIM without a Salute, I think he would have just bitch slapped them into the ground.

The Major was wrong and you were not aggressive. I would like to know what the PFC gave as a reason for not rendering a sharp salute.

Immediate, direct, and to the point, off to the side if possible, with no yelling or drama. Keep emotion out of it. That said, this is grown-folks business, and hurt feelings don't matter.

Years ago I participated in a joint service exercise. I am USAF and the CG was Army. For my job I often wore civilian clothes. One day I passed the CG and did not salute as I was in civvies. An Army Major in his group pulled me aside (which I aprecciated) and then jumped all over me about it and after a rather colorful tirade ended with this thought which has never left me- He's a General in the US Army. After all that he has done to work up to that rank I should think that his service to his country alone deserves at least the respect shown by a simple salute. This Major was not overly concerned with my feelings, and he was quite aggressive. And he was 100% correct. Don't go soft on the young troops, teach them well and they will serve well.

from my personal experience, it depended on the officer's reaction. If the O started to blow his top, the junior in the group should pretty much snatch the enlisted aside and get him/her away from the officer in question. THEN you correct the attitude in whatever manner might be proper. If the Officer generally ignores it, I would say something like, "excuse me sir, i'll be back in a minute" then bend the offender's ear in a reasonably polite manner to find out what his/her problem is. Jumping on the offenders shit right there in an aggressive manner is almost NEVER the proper response.

nuts cover your ass at all time

I, was a Marine E5, one morning in formation the Captain, informed the troops, we did not e to salute all day long, a new order handed down from Hdqs, directed if we fall out for formation in the morning, and saluted the Commanding Officer it was a given we did not have to salute all day long, that order was sufficient, two days later a 2nd LT leaving the mess hall reprimanded me for not saluting? So if in doubt salute.

If they aren't one of YOUR troops, a simple "PFC, the custom dictates to salute officers" would have been in order (in a professional non aggressive tone). If she was one of your troops, same words but follow up with a verbal counseling in private at another time.

The counseling that I always used was a 5 minute explanation of the heraldry behind the origin of the military salute and an explanation that you are committing to a custom to pay homage to this ancient custom by saluting the rank. Then I had them sign a memo for record, which I kept in a small pocket notebook that everyone knew that i kept, and would never show up anyplace else.

I’ve saulted first. There’s confusion over where non salute zones end especially at that rank. I forgot to return a salute on commissioning day. That was embarrassing.

You have to remember, he's a Army Major. In boot camp they train their soldiers by being mentors and not drill instructors. His response to U demonstrates exactly what I'm talking about. I bet if the navy lieutenant would have had the chance he or she would dressed him down like no tomorrow. Are you could have excused herself a few minutes from the presence of the officers and pull that PFC off to the side and gave them a Stern warning about military code of conduct and showing a proper respect to officers.