eli5: what does the US military or soldiers do when not at war?

Question

I always wonder what it means for enlisted soldiers

In: Other

Answer 1

It depends on what branch. For the Navy and Air Force… not much actually changes. We use boats and planes in a lot of ways outside of actual combat. What they do on deployments might change a bit, but they still deploy regularly.

As for the Marines and Army, I think a lot of people would be surprised about how much of the military is actually devoted to logistics. In the Army, there are 10 support soldiers for every combat soldier (quick searches aren’t yielding results for the Marines). The 10 support staff do pretty much the same thing. The 1 combat soldier trains and does busy work. They’re there as a deterrent and because when they’re needed, they’re needed immediately, so you can’t just wait for a war to hire and train them