When an E-4 calls me "hey" or "hey man" knowing that I am an officer, should I bother to correct him?

You should have corrected him on the spot, Officer’s and enlisted are NOT friends! Remember, respect the Rank, not the person! But remember Officer’s, it goes both ways. I have politely corrected a few Officers when they called me by my last name, and it gets them all riled up. A lot of times it a power trip with Officers. If you, as an Officer, address an enlisted man with just his last name, you yourself are in volition of military regs, but there is no recourse for the enlisted guy. What’s an enlisted guy going to do if this happen to them, threaten the Officer with UCMJ action, as a number of Officer’s that have replied to this question say they would do. Going to take you down from an O3, to an O1, because you didn’t call me SPC! There a lot of bad leadership in the Officers ranks! Look up the Regs.

I would give him the Five Finger Death Punch and then slowly lower him to the ground. He wouln't ever do it again. In all honesty this type of rank respect is a break down of his command. It can be restored one salute at a time and it needs to be started by the NCO's.

CPT Jeff R., I have a feeling you're hanging out with lower ranking subordinate Soldiers on the weekend or evenings. That's called fraternization, and yes you should have corrected this Soldier, in addition stopping hanging out with these Soldiers. It wasn't the first or last time during my military career I found out that a commissioned officer was hanging out with enlisted/lower enlisted Soldiers on the weekend or evenings until they got in trouble, and later everyone knew at that point going forward, lol!

"That's 'Hey, Captain" or "Hey, Sir," nver "man" or "bro" or anything else." Easy correction and not hostile or authoritarian.

Respect is critical in all relationships. Allowing anything else is unacceptable, and to ever think it is optional cannot be tolerated. Military and Civilian relationships thrive when respect is upheld and maintained. If you do not care, then they will not care.

This is starting to be the case time after time now. Training should have started at home many years ago. This is what you get when starting out in life you are taught that you are better than everyone else. I would like to see what would have happened at Fort Knox in 1959 if someone would have done this. Yes, there were some officers that were not worthy of much respect, but you respect the rank. Leaders are not out to be your buddy but are officers to lead. (NCOs also) I can't believe I am reading something like this and the more I think about it the madder I get.

You on the spot correct that failure. Then you find his/her NCO and ask them to continue the correction. ALWAYS remember…you are NOT their buddy. Ever, The familiarity breeds contempt. You are their leader. You can not be his-her friend.

Active Duty Soldiers have no issues with that!

yes most likely he forgot he is a NCO not a CO. Probably E-4 for 24 hours and barely old enough to wipe his ass without instructions

You darn right you should dress the up and down. That is just plain disrespectful. Must be indicative of the Obiden Affiliates that permeate our Military now. Won't be long now that you could be Court Martialed for take such action, as you would be "demonstrating your privilege over subordinates". Call me full of it, but it is coming.