What makes marines different

They were founded in a bar! Marines like to fight, Marines like to drink. Marines have this sense of arrogant, cocky pride about them. Everything that is asked of them gets done. Marine Corps Sgt. Christopher Fiffie assigned to 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, drinks cobra blood during jungle survival training Feb.

Staff Sgt. Originally published by American Grit. The Army platoons contain smaller squads. An Army rifle squad leader is typically a sergeant or staff sergeant who leads two four-man fire teams. Each Army fire team consists of a team leader, an automatic rifleman, a grenadier, and a rifleman. Note that the Army squad is using a dedicated grenadier in place of an assistant automatic rifleman.

Typically, one rifleman in each squad will be a squad designated marksman, a specially trained shooter who engages targets at long range. Also, the Army has an additional squad in each platoon, the infantry weapons squad. This squad has teams dedicated to the MB machine gun and the Javelin missile system. Both Marine Corps and Army infantry platoons operate under company and battalion commanders who may add capabilities such as rockets or mortars when needed.

The Army typically gets new weapons before the Marine Corps. It moved to the M4 before the Marine Corps did, and soldiers are more likely than Marines to have the newest weapons add-ons like optical sights, lasers, and hand grips. Marines will get all the fancy add-ons. They just typically get them a few years later. The Army is quickly adopting the M as its primary grenade launcher while the Marine Corps is using the M The M can be fired as a stand-alone weapon.

Either the M or M can be mounted under an M16 or M4. Obviously, infantry units aren't on their own on the battlefield. Marine and Army rifle units call for assistance from other assets when they get bogged down in a fight. For stronger assets such as artillery and close air support, the services differ. Marines in an Marine Expeditionary Unit, an air-ground task force of about 2, Marines, will typically have artillery, air, and naval assets within the MEU.

Both branches are organized into small units, which break down into platoons, squads, and fire teams. Both types of platoons include a radio operator and a medic.

However, when it comes to executing a task of mission, each platoon will act differently. The U. Army is primarily land-based, so they will use trucks, tanks and all-terrain vehicles for transportation. Conversely, the Marines frequently handle Navy-related campaigns, so they might use ships, submarines and amphibious vehicles in addition to Humvees or tanks.

Both branches might receive air support from within their branch or from the U. Air Force. The government typically uses the Army to address long-term conflicts. Army often maintains a presence overseas for years until a conflict is resolved. Army also uses a variety of artillery and weapons during warfare including automated rifles, grenades and land missiles. The Marines use similar weapons, but often will not receive upgrades or the newest models until a few years after the U.

The Marines can usually mobilize faster than the U. They respond to crises, engage in emergency operations and defend threatened military bases. The Marines travel in smaller units and may assist in humanitarian efforts. Because the Marines utilize weapons and strategies that involve air, land and naval methods, they can rapidly provide diverse solutions to unexpected conflicts.

Marine Corps Careers and Employment. Perhaps the most fundamental difference between the Army and the Marines is the departments for which they work. Although it is an individual entity, the Marines fall under the department of the U. The Navy supplies the Marines with important resources, including naval transportation, medics to small infantry units, while the Marines, in turn, protect naval assets. Army is singularly responsible for its own forces. Army provides independent medical care for its personnel, along with other necessary employee services.

Since marines will have to operate within the range of proliferating enemy precision fires, they will need to disperse into small units to avoid being targeted. This will require many new capabilities, including high-endurance loitering sensors and munitions, communications and radars with a low probability of intercept and detection, and advanced air defense systems.

Berger wants the Marine Corps to develop precision land-based fires with ranges beyond nautical miles, to attack moving targets afloat and ashore. The new guidance also notes that the Corps has already started experimenting with novel ways to use existing capabilities, such as basing up to 20 FB aircraft which have short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities on big-deck amphibious ships to provide more dispersed and survivable airpower to the Navy.

These changes will revolutionize how marines fight throughout the remainder of this century. Berger argues that large and expensive manned platforms will become ever more exposed to attack and will make marines ever more vulnerable by concentrating them in too few places.

He frankly states that he is willing to trade Marine force structure for modernization dollars, which would inevitably shrink the size of his service. Since the threat environment will require increasingly distributed operations, Berger wants combined arms operations to be pushed from infantry companies down to individual rifle squads and reconnaissance teams. Even more importantly, however, Berger strongly warns against the corrosive effects of commanders who impose too much rigidity on their subordinates while training at home.

Berger deserves credit for identifying it so clearly and stressing how much it undermines effective warfighting. Throughout the planning guidance, Berger highlights the growing warfighting contributions of marines who are not on the front line.

He also takes on the deeply egalitarian ethos of the Corps, which holds that all marines are elite, by repeatedly insisting upon the need to single out and reward top performers while simultaneously ushering out those who do not measure up. The Corps continues to pose the greatest cultural barriers to female servicemembers taking on a full range of roles, especially in ground combat units.

Only the Marines still run gender-segregated initial entry training , which sends a message to all marines that there are different expectations for women, and which perpetuates disparities throughout the service. The cover of the document takes a small step forward on this, featuring a female Marine battalion commander marching in front of her troops.

As Chris Brose notes , the Air Force is deeply over-invested in short-range manned tactical fighters.