Marines vs Soldiers

i didn’t say the army wasn’t in the Pacific. i know they were, but they wern’t the major assault force there. they were mainly support (although then support didn’t mean sit back and wait for it to be safe before moving in), My grandfather was in the Army Air Corp in WWII and served in the Pacific. his job was to build/repair air strips on the islands. as an enganier though he also was making the landings right with the Marines on the islands. we (as in all the US and Allies) couldn’t afford to have our enganiers and other support men stay back for it to be safe. we needed them all on the ground giving and taking rounds.
but as a standard the Army was in Europe and the Marines were in the Pacific. Navy and Air Force(Army then) were in both.
as for McAurther leading, it seams to be the standard to put the Army in charge all the time, even when the Marines are the bulk of the force in some place. i think in this case though it made scence for a few resons.
before WWII the Marines were a vary small force, no where near enough to sustain a long drawn out war like this. i can’t say for sure numbers but the Marines were no where near enough to make it through the war and resupply there numbers. this means that the Marines didn’t have full blown generals. the Marine Corps first full blown general (4 star) was Holcomb who was the Commadant durring WWII, but was awarded the rank after he retired. this means that it was better to place a 4 star general in charge of the opperation, so it fell to an Army General. the choice was an easy one as McAurther already had experiance in the Pacific with his standing in the Phillapeans. he did make the most sence for a commander in that theater of opperation.

a44:

Correct, the Army DID do them.  However, that was more a necessity then a job description is what I am saying.  Sure, with seemingly unlimited resources and no regard for loss of equipment or life, you can eventually over whelm any defender.  But the Marines do this (as well as pirate tactics) as a matter of day to day life.  That’s what makes them good at it.

BTW, pirate tactics is not meant as a derogatory comment.  Back in the day it was the Marines that went ship to ship / hand to hand fighting.  That’s what I meant by it.

If I need a beach taken, I’ll gladly call the US Marines.  If I need a hill taken or to rapidly deploy a battalion of troops in an inner city, I’ll call the US Army.

If I need a country leveled, I’ll call the US Navy to start the fight and the US Air Force to finish it.

If I need policemen to help idiots with their yachts, I’ll call the US Coast Guard. :P

Just to clarify for Pervavita Gen MacAuthur was not in overall command in the PTO he was in charge of the Southwest Pacific Area. Admiral Nimitz was in charge of the rest of the Pacific. Both reported to the Joint Chiefs. And also for what it is worth there were amphibious operations carried out in the PTO that were all US Army.

I get your point Jen but that unfortunately is trying to take todays perspective back to 1940 whatever. Private Joe Shmoe fresh from some Kansas farm is not coming off an assault craft any better strictly because he is wearing the spiffy USMC cammies. Keep in mind that the USMC was very small at the start of the war and like the Army units had to be trained in amphibious operations at best some of their units did have seasoned cadre but many were formed from scratch in the states.

Actually, Joe Schmoe who went through Marine Basic Training and graduated is more likely to know how to survive and win an Amphibious Assault then Janet Schmoe who went through Army Basic Training.

Marines have a longer basic because they also train, or so I am told, in amphibious and marine environments.  Though, to be honest, I never donned the USMC uniforms.  No offense, but I do not like them.  Just my opinion though.  (That and I didn’t relish the thought of living in California!)

Again I was referencing the Marines of the 2nd World War which were the only US forces to wear camouflage (HBT reversible) which the current USMC uniforms harken back to somewhat. They are much better looking than the new Army digital  barf.  I also really have to give a thumbs up to the Corps on the way they went about designing the new uniforms by letting the troops comment and suggest changes. As far as dress uniforms that is a no-contest with Army Dress Blues being a close second but those are optional for special occasions anyway.

I would also suspect Marine boot is longer than Army basic due to the fact that every Marine is first a rifleman which would put it more in line with Infantry school than straight basic anyway, but one of the Marines here would have to comment on that aspect.

Yea, uh, bud.  The USMC was wearing digitals a good year or two before the Army was forced into them.

I miss BDUs.  But allegedly digitals are better at camouflaging you, and if you are harder to see, then you live longer.  I can handle ACUs if it means I live longer, even if they don’t match my camesol and pumps!

i know Nimitz was over all commander, i was meaning that McAurthur was the land force over all commander.

USMC went digital back in 2001, or atleast started too. i admit they are horid to look at, but when you see a head walking up on you at about 50 yards in a mowed lawn, you learn real quick that they are the best thing we got for the job. yes that is darn near how they look too. it dosn’t hurt that they are iron free too  :wink:
as for training, i never went through Army basic, but it is 8 weeks long, in that 8 weeks they have to teach them to march, PT (to standard), drill, learn Army history, learn Rank structure, and some other stuff that i’m not sure of.
Marines spend 13 weeks. in that time they spend a week on what is called “team week” we called it “slave labor week”. big waist of time, but it gave a break from the normal run of stuff. the other 12 weeks are broken into 3 stages. stage one and 2 run together as the break down and build up. durring that time (about 7 weeks + team week) we learn Marine history, PT, drill, march, week in water, and all learn to be basic field medics. 3 stage is where we spend a little over 4 weeks going on marches (humps) and other “field work”. in that last stage they spend a week teaching us the basics of how to shoot. yes a week before we even fire our rifles. then we spend a week firing at targets between 200 and 500 yards.
after Boot camp (Basic) we get some time off, then all Marines except GRUNTS (Infantry) go to Basic Infantry School where we spend 10 days more of boot camp type treatment firing our rifles in more combat situations, also we try out other weopens such as SAWS, MK19, 50Cal, and some others (i think they cut out the MK19 and 50 cal though). we allso throw granaids and do some other training to be infantry men (thats the fun stuff we did). at the end we have a big mock war. it would be funner with chalk rounds and i hope they went to thouse, but it was just blanks when i did it. at the end of that all POGS go to there MOS school. GRUNTS don’t go there, they go straight to there School of Infantry.

Digitals suck, they don’t breath, the matereal rips too easy and there’s too much velcro.  The army in already in process of replaceing them in two years or so last I heard.  Also the Army is changeing the Class A uniform to the Dress blue Uniform with some minor changes in the next year or two.

As for the PTO, My current unit the 158 INF fought in the philipenes and was slated to make spearhead landings in southern Japan durring the main assault.  “Cuidado” go Bushmasters.

i will admit, they rip way to easy compaired to the old style. but over all i think they are an improvment, atleast the Marine’s version is. i know the Army and Marines don’t have the same.

Well mine are Army and I want my DCUs back.

@dezrtfish:

Well mine are Army and I want my DCUs back.

Wait, the ACUs don’t have ripstop fabric?  WTF?  Enlisted men don’t get paid enough to replace their uniforms every few months!

Anyway, if the Army is switching out the ACUs again (guess they got tired of orange camos; wonder why?) what will they switch too?  BDU/ACU again?  Marine ACUs? (Less ugly, but still ugly, IMHO.)

And the Army has always had dress blues.  It just wasn’t THE dress uniform.  You mean they want to get rid of the greens and just have blues?  Dunno if I like that.  Dunno if I don’t like that either.

The field uniform change has been in the workd for a long time part of the futrue force warrior program.  It is suposed to be designed to be fiited with electronics for weapon integration, cameras, battery packs, beter knee elbow pads etc. I think they made the ACUs as an attempt to get rid of the multiple camo paturns, Desert and Woodland it also add som of the ideas planned for 2010.  That when the new Uniforms are suposed to come out.  It’s a different camo too, I think it’s called multicam or something like that.

As for the class A’s yep, they are doing away with the greens.  Personaly I think they should get rid of the greens and the blues and put something together that resembles the Ike jacket with kakki shirt from the 50’s.  That uniform had style.

never thought Blues were right for the Army. don’t know, it seams wrong, like the Navy’s Green uniform.

To be honest, I’d like to see a return to the Colonial Blue Uniform, but I’m just an archaic kind of girl. (Hell, I was born in the wrong millennium.  I’d love to have a man put me on a pedestal and protect my honor so I can spend all day playing with my kids and getting the housework done (even better if we have house servants!))

Yea, I noticed they didn’t work against trees, but, to be honest, they are desert camos, not really urban, IMHO.  Urban is more gray/black I believe.

@ncscswitch:

I am reminded of an old George Carlin bit from the Beirut deployment era…

“Have you seen the video of our Marines in Beirut?  They are wearing camouflage.  There aren’t F’ing trees within 20 miles of Beirut.  The should be wearing store fronts and car grills on their uniforms.”

I actually thought it was pretty humorous.

Honestly, I saw some infantry pukes running around Fort Benning in their basic training and wondered what they were hiding from because it must be bats or something else that was blind, cause that camo was SOOO Bad against the trees it woulda been better to run around naked with a bright halogen flashlight on.