How different are the US Marines from the Marines of other countries like the British Royal Marines or Mexican MArines etc?
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The USMC operates on a different order of magnitude.
The entire Royal Marines consists of ~6 000 troops including support personnel. They’re an elite light infantry formation. This goes for just about every other country as well.
The USMC consists of ~180 000 troops including support personnel. The entire USMC *is not* an elite light infantry formation, but it *contains* such units, e.g. Force Recon. They have their own fighter jets, and up until just a few years ago, they also had tanks. In other words, they’re basically a second army.
* The US Marines are their own service branch of the Armed forces, with a distinct hierarchy. Most other Marines forces in the world are sub-branches of their own Navy service branches.
* They’re much more well funded and equipped.
… and that’s about it. All of these services are Naval Infantries, specializing in Amphibious Assault, and in Reconnaissance.
Marines today share a unique combat evolution and proudly carry on that legacy. There has always been a need for any naval vessel to defend itself against incursions. Way back when, think Odysseus, everyone was ground troop and if you were lucky, or rich, you had a ship or a navy to transport troops and goods/supplies to and fro. Fast forward to say Colonial times. England was successful in expand empire with their dominant navy. By this time, technology and the need for more specialized troops came forth. Marines are the ground troops deployed as an initial shock force to expand or defend territory quickly (while en route to on ships, they have maritime duties they must do, including repelling enemy boarding. We Americans with our Navy had these guys early. The Marine Corps is the first official military organization of the fledgling nation. They hung from the tops of the rigging with muskets, the were proficient with sabers and wore the famous Dress Blue uniform with thick leather neck guards as slash protection. They were dubbed the Leatherneck, a name still used to describe US Marines today. Our Dress Blues remain unchanged since that time, the only service that can claim that. Nowadays, Marines have honed in specifically on combined maritime assaults. That’s our bread and butter. This was created and refined during WWII in the island hopping campaign. Then moreso during the Vietnam war. Afghanistan and Iraq was a huge learning opportunity for the Corps, good and bad. (I was in Afghan). Marines are always evolving and will always step in to unfamiliar situations if needed. BTW, most of the world’s Marines cross-train more often than people realize. I got to train Thai and Cambodian Marines during my time…
Edit: Oh yeah, my first deployment was based out of a carrier group that set sail out of Okinawa. Dept. of the Navy then Marines.
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