quote:

Originally posted by editengine:
Their Marine force is a lot smaller than ours. Their marines are really British style marines which are a commando force. Our marines are more like a small army.

Shit no.

The USMC are more like a large defence force.

Size of USMC: 194,000

Size of ADF: 51,500

Damn HECS scheme, eh?

Yeah that has a lot to do with how they were used in WWII The Army had europe to focus on and the marines were allowed to expand far beyond their original role of naval infantry to meet the demands of the Pacific war. Now they kind of evolved into a hyper-violent large reaction force.

quote:

hyper-violent large reaction force

HVLRF.

quote:

Originally posted by editengine:
Yeah that has a lot to do with how they were used in WWII The Army had europe to focus on and the marines were allowed to expand far beyond their original role of naval infantry to meet the demands of the Pacific war. Now they kind of evolved into a hyper-violent large reaction force.

Aye. Well, they had the whole Pacific theatre...though it's a Mississippi meerschaum-smoking General from the Army who shacked up in that place where I get bubblegum-flavoured icecream from who is most remembered from that campaign.

Lotsa places got marines. Thais, Indonesians, hell, even Bolivia and they don't even have a coastline.

I guess the main difference between the USMC and other marines is that the USMC is a separate force. Most others are part of navies.

Well the army was certainly in the Pacific. The Army Rangers were really born there. MacArthur was an army general after all. They just didn't have enough people to fight it on their own. Marine forces worldwide, including the Americans, were based off the British Marines who are a textbook Naval infantry and commando force. The US Marines were administratively part of the Navy until this century.

They and the Navy, until the advent of precision bombing, also represented the strongest method by which the US could project power worldwide.

Not sure how we got off on this, except that traditionally the Marines are used to fight pirates.

quote:

Originally posted by lithos:


I guess the main difference between the USMC and other marines is that the USMC is a separate force. Most others are part of navies.

I think the hyper-violence is a significant difference. I suspect a lot of the third world marine forces you mentioned are modeled on the USMC. I know most nam vets thought they were crazy (if they weren't actually marines themselves in which case they definitely thought they were crazy) and the whole code they have is decidedly in favor of killing folk.

quote:

Originally posted by editengine:

Not sure how we got off on this, except that traditionally the Marines are used to fight pirates.

"... to the shores of Tripoli!!!"

quote:

Originally posted by editengine:
we will be kicking your ass today motherfucker!

You aren't a Sikh, are you?

I thought you were Latino.

Islamic fighters vow to rescue hijacked Saudi tanker

yeah this is going to end well.

quote:

Originally posted by editengine:
Islamic fighters vow to rescue hijacked Saudi tanker

yeah this is going to end well.

You're a Latino Sikh, aren't you?

quote:

The US Marines were administratively part of the Navy until this century.

Uh, they still are. They're in the Department of the Navy. When reminded of this, they like to say, "Yeah, we're a department in the Navy. The men's department." And then they bark like bulldogs. Which does not subtract from the veracity of the statement.

I like Marines because more often than not, they have their shit together. Even if they have no idea why they're doing what they're doing, they're generally doing it well. Unless it involves spelling. There could be problems then.

quote:

Originally posted by editengine:
Islamic fighters vow to rescue hijacked Saudi tanker

yeah this is going to end well.

Perhaps this was the plan from the beginning?

Bait them both and blow the fuck out of all.

oops you're right of course, they are considered a sep service though with their own commandant and not under the command of a Navy admiral and they have their own seat on the JCOS.

The ones I have known have borne out Splits assessment too, really good at doing stuff but not so good at figgerin'

You don't need to figger is you just blow the stuff up into enough pieces and say: "There, no no ones can count it all."

My Dad was a Marine. Smart enough to not be deployed on the ground-- instead, they had him train on howitzers meant to fire nuclear rounds (they used depleted uranium, so supposedly non-radioactive). Some figuring involved in trajectories, etc.

Closest he got to Vietnam was Okinawa.

quote:

Perhaps this was the plan from the beginning?

Bait them both and blow the fuck out of all.

The pirates keep a hundred or more hostages at any given time. Letting them dirty Musselmens spill hostage blood on their hands provides a form of cover while opening new doors for recriminatory endless bombing/strafing runs.

I think we should drop ten thousand pipe-bomb laden robodogs on the area.

The Mohammedans want to seize the Holy Sepulcher of Oil.

quote:

Originally posted by editengine:
oops you're right of course, they are considered a sep service though with their own commandant and not under the command of a Navy admiral and they have their own seat on the JCOS.

I think they just showed up and stole a chair on the Joint Chiefs' table one day. And none of the other flags had the balls to ask them to leave.

Air Force leans over to Army, "He scares me."

"Shhhh, quiet. He might hear you and kill us both with his fountain pen."

Navy leans in. "He doeshn't shcare me."

"That's because you're drunk," they reply.

quote:

The ones I have known have borne out Splits assessment too, really good at doing stuff but not so good at figgerin'

Not really what I was saying.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

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Unless it involves spelling. There could be problems then.

it totally was, don't get scared of them now!