Hmm, this title is very delicate in context to my post and I assure you I do not mean to offend/insult anyone by it.

Ok here goes: For the past 8 years or so (I'm 18) I've been interested in joining the military. However, I never really thought about what branch until the past year or so. I had it narrowed down to two branches: the marines and the army. At this point I've pretty well chosen the army for mostly one reason; the marines are highly "arrogant" (once again, i dont mean this offensively). I know the marines are toughly trained individuals and are among the best in regular military. But EVERY marine i have ever talked to seems to have the attitude of "I'm a US marine..I am the best..everyone else (in particular army) is below me." I know they are proud of their accomplishments, but at the same time come on... a lot of army soldiers are tougher than marines.

The point of this post is simple: why are marines so cocky?

Once again, I do respect EVERY individual in the US military and I have no intentions of insulting anyone, I'm just curious.

Thanks,

VmiCadet

er sorry for this post, just wanted to add one thing in defense of the marines:

One thing I know is that the marines do have better equipment in most cases than the army ( I read in a magazine a few days ago about a new type of transport vehicle that the DOD came out with that was supposed to be more protective than the humvee, and the some 25000 marines in Iraq ordered more of them than the 125000 army)

quote:

I know the marines are toughly trained individuals and are among the best in regular military. But EVERY marine i have ever talked to seems to have the attitude of "I'm a US marine..I am the best..everyone else (in particular army) is below me."

Uh, 'cause it's true?

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a lot of army soldiers are tougher than marines.

and that's not. Every Soldier I've met "wanted to be a Marine, but...". Every soldier I met admires the Marines and wants them on their back. Marines are the best and know it...it's part of who we are. And Marines can always number off a few dozen times that the US Army has done some bonehead thing or another. That's partly because of the Army's "must be done by the book" outlook vice the Marines "improvise, adapt and overcome" outlook. That, and the "ten percent". See, we're much smaller than the Army, our "ten percent" is also much smaller.

but you see, that is not true> Yes, I'm sure there are Marines out there that are potentially SEAL qualified and some that are among the top in the military. HOWEVER, there are these types in ALL military branches. Also, even if the Marines were the best in the world (which I don't think they are but thats irrelevant)personally i don't think a good soldier goes around bragging about how great he is. Without sounding like Dr. Phil, I believe that it isnt the branch that defines a soldier's capabilities, it's the soldier's own will to reach his goals and overcome the obstacles placed before him.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: vmicadet,

"personally i don't think a good soldier goes around bragging about how great he is"

A good soldier may not brag about how good he is, but a good Marine does, because he is...Yes, there are exceptional service members in every military service. But Marines are historically the cream of the crop. Are Marines arrogant, yeah pretty much. are they arrogant for good reason? Most definately...

woah woah...are you implying soldiers (army) aren't as good as Marines? So your saying the millions and millions of Army soldiers that died throughout history weren't as good as the millions of marines throughout history? Is that what you're implying?

Let me ask this: Who is better trained-Marine Force Recon or Rangers?

i believe that marines need the arrogance, or the invincible attitude, were the best out there attitude. because of that, we feel more confident in what we do and feel like we are part of something great, even if you are a cook or some admin guy, we have this attitude we are the best. without that, we cant win wars, and for the stuff that we do, and stuff we are involved in, needs greater attention to detail than other branches.

how many army guys go on ships for months and then go on land when emergency strikes? it is the marines job to get there first, and to secure the area before any army or air force guys get there. and no we dont get any credit or media attention because our job is to get there without anyone knowing and do it fast.

trust me, join the marines, why do you think theres only few in the marines? because everyone else who doesnt is scared. its not arrogance man, its a fact. let the numbers tell you. marine corps is only 1/10 the size of the army. we only select the best, we cant be having large numbers when they cant keep up, it will only slow us down.we weed out the slow guys so they can join the army.
we are swift, fast and we get the job done. not saying army guys arent great either, we just do it better.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: chunUSMC,

Yah, I see what you're saying...I just think the other branches deserve just as much attention. Maybe they aren't as..hmm..trained..but they still do their jobs serving this country.

Out of all honesty, I'm not big on water (swimming pools are fine, but ocean is not lol) so that is why I don't lean torward Marines very much. One thing I will say about Marines...they have a nice uni

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I believe that it isnt the branch that defines a soldier's capabilities, it's the soldier's own will to reach his goals and overcome the obstacles placed before him.

Hence, the Army motto "Army of One". It's all about individuals.

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woah woah...are you implying soldiers (army) aren't as good as Marines? So your saying the millions and millions of Army soldiers that died throughout history weren't as good as the millions of marines throughout history? Is that what you're implying?

Uh...yeah. Let's review, you asked "why are Marines so cocky and think they're better than everyone else?". You got an answer, "because we are cocky and better than everyone else". Then you're affronted by that answer and try to bring honorable dead Soldiers into the mix?
Don't think I disrespect Soldiers, worked with plenty that were good enough to be Marines (that's a joke in case you didn't get it). In fact, read my answer(s) carefully and you'll see I capitalize Soldier, just like Marine (which many folks don't...even Army folks).

PS-- Marines have the worst equipment of all services. The vehicles and the Osprey are very rare occurrences of equipment being developed for and by the USMC. Usually, we get the leftovers and a few years after the US Army has already fielded the equipment.

First off- I never came close to implying that the deaths of any service member are more or less important than any other service member. Sacraficing oneself for their country was not a topic of my post... As far as Force Recon or Rangers, they are both very well qualified, but the USMC has the motto first to fight for a reason. They are the best, plain and simple. Semper Fi.

lmao "but the USMC has the motto first to fight for a reason" ------as does the Rangers'-"Rangers Lead the Way"

Ok lets back up a minute to the whole thing on the dead Soldiers. I brought that up b/c that's the impression I got by reading his post (No I dont think he was trying to dishonor the dead, but that is the way it sort of came out). It just sounded like he was saying "well the Marines are the best and no one is as good as they are" THE MARINES AREN'T THE ONLY PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES THAT DO THEIR JOB AND DO THEIR JOB WELL.

I have no qualms with the USMC (haha I know this post says otherwise)...I truly don't, I just get annoyed by hearing person after person say "NO NO THE MARINES ARE THE BEST..NO THEY ARE"..."yah the Rangers are pretty good too".."NO NO NO MARINES ARE THE BEST".

To the people who have posted on this topic: I don't mean to start a "ARMY VS USMC" thread, I just want to understand better why exactly the USMC is so "special" and why everyone is so obsessed with them. I am thankful for all the input, and again sorry for any offensive material ( though i tried to avoid it).

VmiCadet

for reals, who told you marines get the best equipment? hahah you joking? we get the left overs and used weapons from the army, thats why were so grimey, but stay so shiny(dress blues) LOL. we make the best of what we can get, army guys are the ones who are spoiled and get new high tech weapons. if you think your nitty gritty and hard core, give the marine corps a try, if not, then join some where else.

PS- marines are special, and were not obssessed, its in our blood to be proud. ive been out for 4 years now and im a civilian, but still i carry my self as a marine, not active but i guess as a person. NO one can understand that feeling except marines, you seem curious, jut do it man, you wont regret it.

Well I think you misunderstood a little bit. I meant people OUTSIDE the Marine Corp..people that don't know anything about the Marine Corp except what they see on TV. I'm sure the people that ARE Marines are proud, as can be said about almost anyone in the military.

Look I'll put it simple as to why I am turning away from the Marine Corp: 1)I would like to go into maybe the Rangers (eh Force Recon doesnt attract me too much for some reason). 2)I don'
t like water (once again, ocean being my meaning) and it comes to my understanding that Marines spend a considerable amount of time on ships in the middle of the Ocean. Honestly I don't care about the work/training/drilling...I mean I am definitely going into some sort of Special Forces whatever branch I go into, so I am not afraid to work toward my goal. I suppose THE biggest factor is the water- I'm not a very good swimmer! haha. You convince me that these things wont be a problem and seriously...I'd give serious thought into the USMC!

PS: Patoloco- you didnt capitalize one of your "Soldier"s in your first post :P :P

Uhm.....

quote:

vmicadet:
I've pretty well chosen the army for mostly one reason; the marines are highly "arrogant"

That's what you started off with. But, yeah, ya don't swim good, Army is better.

And, yeah, I missed one...Soldier. There made up for it.

Yes, I knew someone would refer back to that.

1)I did say MOSTLY :P
2)At that point I was a little ticked off and wasn't actually thinking about joining the MC.

vmicadet

You have answered your own questions in a very round about way. News to me that Rangers don't ever do anything around water though......

well..hmm

Ok, I know Rangers do missions in water, but as to my understanding Marines spend a lot of time out in the ocean/on ships. Is this not true?

Sure, after all the Marines are in the Department of the Navy. You honestly think that the Army flies everywhere? If that answer is yes, then you really need to bone up on your history. The government sends troops overseas in all manners, be it ships, or leasing commercial airliners. The latter is only done depending on the urgency of need as it is very expensive to fly entire divisions, brigades via commercial air.

Besides, being at sea is a great experience. Ain't nothing compares to boarding an AMTRAC and getting shit out of the ass end of a ship to hit the beach. On top of that Sailors are great fun to be around. They know by instinct where the best time can be had in any liberty port. They KNOW where all the good women are to be found. They KNOW where all the great booze is kept. They KNOW how to have a good knock down fist fight. Army guy's....KNOW how to hide under the tables when Sailors and Marines get started.

What would be sweet is if I could go through Marine boot camp then go onto RIP

Sigh- that would be cool

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Army guy's....KNOW how to hide under the tables when Sailors and Marines get started.

You mean to tell me that an Army Soldier never kicked a Marine or Sailor's A$$?

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You mean to tell me that an Army Soldier never kicked a Marine or Sailor's A$$?

Yeah, it happened once, but you'll never see any mention of it. The Air Force made a deal with the Navy and Marines. If Navy and Marines stopped referring to them as the "Army Air Corps", they'd hush it all up, claim it was actually a weather balloon that kicked the Marine's ass, then locked up all the evidence in a hangar near Roswell, NM.

I just went about 45 years over your head, but I guess some will get it.