Firstly, I am British, so I have 0 clue on how the US armed forces work.
My limited knowledge of the system tells me that marines and the army perform the same task, which is the primary land based attack force.
So what exactly is the difference between the 2 and how does the US decide which force to mobilise and when?
In: Other
It’s really important to note that in the 21st century the US military has separate branches of service but ultimately they tend to operate under a joint/unified structure (working together as one unit when possible and necessary and feasible to execute missions rather than doing things individually, though as you can imagine the Navy with its ships is still responsible for mostly doing things at sea while the Army is still responsible for mostly doing things on land). At the peak of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan it was not uncommon to have people from all the branches deploying together in one location to support missions you might think are traditionally just “for the Army”.
The Marine Corps is one of those branches of service – it recruits, trains, equips and deploys its own forces. *But*, it falls under the overall umbrella of the Department of the Navy. It is postured around the world and on Navy vessels to deploy rapidly to any point in the world, establish a beachhead, establish a temporary basing point, and start blowing things up so other forces can come in and start making a more permanent presence. It’s oftentimes called the “tip of the spear”, since they’re known as being the “first ones to fight”.
The Army is its own branch of service and its own department (the Department of the Army). It also focuses a lot on ground operations, but it’s usually larger scale, longer term deployments meant to maintain that momentum and presence that the Navy and Marines established.
The Army is significantly bigger (more people and equipment) than the Marine Corps.
Latest Answers