Marine leaders more aggresive than army ones

[rogueusmc]

A Navy Admiral, an Army General, an Air Force General and a Marine Sgt Major were sitting in a bar drinking one day and, as you may well imagine, the discussion was lively. Soon the discussion turned to whose troops had the biggest balls.

After arguing over this subject for a time, the Army General said, "y'all come over to my base and I'll show you troops with balls."
They all went to the Army base and they went to see a Ranger platoon.
The General walked up to a Ranger and said, “soldier, I want you to go up in that helicopter there and jump out of it.”
The Ranger said, “YES SIR!!” He goes up in the helicopter and jumps out. He hits the ground with a sickening thud. Deader than shit.
The General turns to the others and said, “now that’s balls.”

The Navy Admiral said, “that ain’t shit. Ya’ll come over to MY base and I’ll show you troops with balls.”
They all went to the Navy base and boarded one of the big carriers.
The Admiral found a sailor and asks, “sailor, can you swim?”
The sailor said, “no sir.” The Admiral proceeded to tell him to jump off the side of the flight deck.
The sailor said, “AYE AYE SIR!” The sailor jumped off the deck and fell all the way to the water where, after splashing in, he commences to flailing at the water. He goes under a couple of times and comes back up. Then he went down and wasn’t seen again.
The Admiral turns to the others and said, “now THAT’S balls!”

The Air Force General said, “THAT ain’t shit. Come on over to MY base.”
They go to the Air Force base and approached the flight line.
The General told one of his fighter jocks to take his Falcon up to it’s ceiling and then dive it into the dirt.
The jet jock said, “YES SIR!” He takes off and does as he was instructed and drove his plane into the ground. The heat from the fireball can be felt back near the group of men.
The General said, “MY troops have the biggest balls!”

The whole time the Marine Sgt Major has just been drinking his rum and grenadine not saying a thing. He finally spoke up and said, “Y’all don’t know what real balls are! Y’all follow me.”
They group followed the Sgt Major to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California. They approached one of the recruits at the repelling tower. The Sgt Major turns to the others and told them to keep in mind that these are just recruits…they aren’t even Marines yet.
The Sgt Major told one of the recruits to climb to the top of the repelling tower and jump off.
The recruit said, “@#$% YOU!”
The Sgt Major turns to the others and said, “now THAT’S BALLS!!”

[scout1]

USNA ('83) so I'm biased a bit.........
I've dealt with marines and army personnel. And I have the utmost respect for my army friends (tanker4145, when are you going to send out your flattops ?), my experience is the jarheads are no group to argue with. bless all of them ..... the Marines are a group that ALWAYS fulfill their goal (for the most part). Never, ever, argue with a Marine......

[Cutman]

There was a huge difference during WWII and I do agree with most that has been said. After H. Smith relived that Army General there was a diificult relationship between the two services. If I remember right they replaced the ARMY Gen in charge of OKINAWA after Buckner got killed by artillery very quickly because the second in command was a Marine. He was only in charge for 2-3 days and they flew in other Army Gen.

ROGUE OARAH!

Cutman
USMC

[mogami]

Hi, It appears that there are a lot of Marines playing WITP
USMC 73-77

[Zorfwaddle]

Im in the USN (CTIC(SG)). The last class here at DLI I taught had 4 Marines. All 4 were talented, respectful, and had their own personalities. Most people think that Marines have one mind (Kill, Kill, Kill), but these guys had character.

George

[rogueusmc]

ORIGINAL: Zorfwaddle

...had 4 Marines...these guys had character.

George

That a nice way to describe us...thank you!!!

[V2]

Semper Fi, Boyz, Semper Fi. Al Gray commisioned me ('89), and he ain't nuts. Devil Dogs are trained from day 1 to be infantrymen, no matter their MOS. Pilots, mechanics, lawyers, cooks, artillerymen, etc all know how to shoot a rifle (accurately!) and conduct platoon level tactics.
Look at Jessica Lynch's unit: A. They got lost, and B. They couldn't fight. She got a Bronze Star and a Leno appearance (or Letterman?) for surrendering. Not a knock on the Army by any means, but merely fact. I respect most Army combat arms units, but esprit de corps and infantry tactics are constantly maintained in all USMC grapes, whether they are supply guys or radarmen or grunts. Of course, the grunts do it best.
The fighting spirit is forged in boot camp and constantly tested. So maybe we ARE nuts, but only when the balloon goes up. SEALs, on the other hand are always nuts! Those boys know how to train.

[pauk]

Although this book is beletristic, i enjoyed in Battle Cry (Leon Uris) very much. Did you guys read this book?

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: AmiralLaurent

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

During WWII there was fierce debate about the slower, lower daily casualty advance of the Army and the faster higher daily casualty advance of the Marines. The Marines argued that they too fewer casualties over all because the battle ended quicker, the Army argued that this was not true and thier way cost less blood. I have never seen anyone try to figure out which of these is true, but that was the debate.

Interesting. At the end of WWII there was a meeting between Soviet and US (or British) generals/marshals. DOn't remember the name, but one of the Western said that the Soviet assaults were really too bloody and that any Western general with such a casualty rate will be sacked. The reply was that Soviet liked better to lose 10 000 men one day and achieve a breaktrough straight away rather to lose 1 000 men each day to see the Germans retire in order after a week "like US did".

In that case, numbers are wrong. The Red Army lost 12 000 - 14 000 dead an average day.... so casualties on first day of offensives should be even more. While the average war day costed the US a little more than 300 dead. In 1944-1945, the rate should be between 500 and 1000 a day as this was the period where the bigger number of US troops were engaged.

In WITP, I think a majority of players use 'shock assault' more often than 'deliberate attack'

Irrelevant..Try to figure it by combat front "square footage"..[:-]

[tsimmonds]

Irrelevant..Try to figure it by combat front "square footage"..

No way, man, DIY, you're on your own here[;)]

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: irrelevant

Irrelevant..Try to figure it by combat front "square footage"..

No way, man, DIY, you're on your own here[;)]

OHHhhhh..A WISE GUY!!!...NYUK,NYUK,NYUK,NYUK,NYUK......

[Halsey]

ORIGINAL: m10bob

Hope I don't start any wars here with my Army buddies,but this is my personal observation.
1.I was (always will be),an Army Ranger..That said,bear with me:
2.The American Army and the USMC had different philosophies from day one.The Army kills it's opponent by slow movement and attrition through maintaining contact with the enemy in a forceful manner..
3.The USMC kills it's opponent by being the finest assault troops the world has ever seen.It maintains this by honestly not placing as much concern with it's own losses,as much as it's accomplishment of the goal.
I had Gyrenes in my AIT unit,and most of the "soldiers" in that AIT thought the Gyrenes were NUTS!.
While I was the only Ranger in that particular AIT,(and therfore could see both sides,the "soldiers" were amazed that in the AIT judo-pits,the Gyrenes went out of their way to "hurt each other",apparently by creed,whereas the soldiers "went thru the motions",which was all that was expected by the judo instructors.
While the Army trains it's people well,it still leaves a lot for the individual troop to learn "on the battlefield",whereas the Gyrene expects to have his roughest time in his boot camp,so any foreign enemy cannot possibly be as bad as wheere he has already been!.This ideology has been verbally confirmed for me by the Gyrenes I have met(and fought with) in my youth.
BTW,the battle cheer "UUURRAHHH" was a "Ranger-thing" waaaay before the Gyrenes started using it..

[:D] You're right on target bob.
As class leader in Rigger School I had the fortune of having half the class made out of Marines. Great, I'm gonna have to keep these guys from killing my Army troopers.

How wrong I was! It was Marine vs Marine! Fighting, pulling dogchains through their noses, and seeing who could shoot their wad the farthest.[:D]
The Army troops just stood back. Eyes wide open, jaws hitting the ground, shaking their heads. No one had ever seen anything like it.

The Marines hated having an Army NCO in charge, so we split the class up.
The Jarheads commanded their own kind, and I took the Army troopers under my command. The class graduated 100%, plus a couple of retreads from previous classes.
All distinguished graduates were Army personnel.
The first time that a class had 100% graduate Rigger School in 5 years.

You want to see an Army unit mutiny? Put a Marine officer in charge.[;)]
I am a witness to this happening at Little Creek Va.[:D]

A Marine is a round of ammo. Point him in the right direction and there he goes.
An Army unit will say f***k this! Call in artillery and air support![:D]

[Micah Goodman]

My brother-in-Law is a retired Marine. The conventional wisdom of course is that Marines aren’t all that bright. The Corps decides that it would be a good idea for him to become a Drill Sergeant. In the Marine Corps apparently you go before a review board to determine if you are the good candidate for such an important position. He is asked a battery of questions by a board of officers and senior NCO’s. He answered all the questions correctly until he was asked, “Gunny, how many recruits can you fit in a trash dumpster?”

My Brother-in-Law thinks seriously for a second and answers, “That depends Sir.”

“That depends on what Gunny?”

“Do you mean whole recruits, or in pieces.”

After a stunned silence the officer continues, “The correct answer Gunny, is I wouldn’t put recruits in a dumpster.”

They seriously considered putting him in counseling as being unstable. They didn’t but they did permanently flag is record as being mentally unfit to train recruits. So he got exactly what he wanted. He was never again considered for recruit training. Marines aren’t as dumb as they are made out to be, but they sure are a sneaky conniving lot.

But back on topic, they reason that Marine officers are more aggressive is that there whole reason for being is shock troops for limited engagements. The Army takes a longer view of engagements. Slow and steady wins the race as it were. Being ex Army the one thing the Marine Corps does that I wish the Army did was to consider every Marine a rifleman first and their individual MOS (military occupation specialty a.k.a., job) second. The only people the Army even half heartedly trains to shoot are its infantry types. Everyone else gets rudimentary training on how to shoot. But hay, training people to shoot costs money, and the Army would rather spend it on other things.

[Halsey]

Marines ARE tough hombres.[:D]

They will do things others wouldn't even dream of.
Training or programing? Could be a little of both.

Bottom line is, different branches have opposite combat doctrines.
The Marines think short term deployments. The Army thinks long term deployments.
That's why these troops usually don't mix very well.

[mogami]

Hi, I spent considerable time on Army bases while in the Corps. I went to Ft Sill for survey school (I was top in class with 98.6 and was promoted to Cpl as a reward but too be fair I had been pony'd by Gunner King for over a year before going to the school (Gunner is what Marines call Warrent Officers)
And after I became party chief I surveyed Ft Bragg. I carried control down "Longstreet" if your ever there find the monuments (cement squres with inverted shell cases where the primer is the plumb point) I put my name and the other party crews name on every one of them. Was in '77' I also surveyed all the arty ranges there.
I never had a problem with the Army. (I have two sisters 1 retired after 26 years in Army the other is still in and married to a soldier)
The only point of conflict for me was bowling. We used to play for beers.
The barracks were nicer and the food was better.
But we did sing "Doggie in the window" when ever we drove by a formation of soldiers.

[Halsey]

[:D][:D][:D]

I will say, if there's going to be tough opposition. Send the Marines in first.
It makes it easier on us Army pukes later.[;)]

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: Mogami


The barracks were nicer and " the food was better."

You did this in '77 ??...I deros'd in '76..I knew it!!.The bastards were saving the good stuff for me to leave!!!!!

[mogami]

Hi, f you had ever had to eat Marine chow you would have liked the Army chow better.
The best thing I ever heard anyone ever say about Marine Corps chow was
"It will make a turd"

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: Mogami

Hi, f you had ever had to eat Marine chow you would have liked the Army chow better.
The best thing I ever heard anyone ever say about Marine Corps chow was
"It will make a turd"

We never had a gedunk either![:(]

[Halsey]

Army chow is pretty good. My old reserve unit had meal tickets for the local buffet.
The unit was too small to have their own mess. We used them at Red Lobster once.[;)]

They believe the philosophy that an army marches on it's stomach.[:D]