Really, Army? Really? This is Army Strong?

[Al B. Sure!]

I am unconvinced that a seperate branch is needed for a force that is suppose to be offshore troubleshooters. Instead the USMC has mutated into a very large Army Jr with it's own air force.

Hey let's get some facts clear, shall we?

In 1915, the Commandant of the Marine Corps authorized the creation of a Marine Corps aviation company consisting of 10 officers and 40 enlisted men.[5] The first official Marine flying unit arrived with the February 17, 1917, commissioning of the Marine Aviation Company for duty with the Advanced Base Force at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.[6]

When was the US Army Air Service established?

The United States Army Air Service was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. It was established on May 24, 1918, after U.S. entry into World War I

[Dinner]

The first Army Air Service was established in 1909. Did you really think the Marine Corps would have beaten them given how much better funded the Army is?

http://www.army.mil/aviation/timeline/index.html

BTW my mother's father was a P-51 pilot in the Army Air Corp during WW2 though he only flew one combat mission over Japan (after three years of training) before the war ended. He wanted to keep flying but given the massive numbers of more experienced pilots flooding the civilian market at the time he ended up reenlisting to take part in the occupation of Japan and later becoming part of the insurance industry in LA. So much for years of pilot training and the dreams of becoming a pilot. Still, he did better (emotionally) then his father who was an Army doe boy in WW1 and who founded a successful electrical lighting company in Chicago after WW1 (he had the contract to build Budweiser neon signs) but who suffered from life long PTSD and flash backs to the trench warfare in France.

[Al B. Sure!]

doughboy, Oerdin, not doe boy.

How are Marine Corps standards not higher than Army standards? We already compared ASVAB scores and GED enlistment rates.

What about physical fitness standards?

[Dinner]

When I enlisted the Marine Corps would literally take all the rejects who didn't have the ASVD score or who had GEDs (which all other services automatically rejected). You've pointed out that 15 years and two wars later the requirements have changed but it's still the absolute truth from my time in the Army. In times of war standards go down as recruiters struggle to find people willing to enlist. That's just a fact.

[Al B. Sure!]

I'm going to pre-empt you saying some crap from your Army recruiter about "Hey, who cares if you can't get a lot of pushups?! The Marine Corps doesn't even require you to be able to do pushups!"

Let's see what it takes to get a perfect score on the APFT and PFT run portions:
What is more challenging?
2 miles in 13:00
3 miles in 18:00

[Al B. Sure!]

When I enlisted the Marine Corps would literally take all the rejects who didn't have the ASVD score or who had GEDs (which all other services automatically rejected). You've pointed out that 15 years and two wars later the requirements have changed but it's still the absolute truth from my time in the Army.

So with wars, what has allowed the Marine Corps the luxury of stricter standards? The Marine Corps is as much in Afghanistan and Iraq as the Army is (in fact, I would suspect a greater % of USMC is deployed than Army).

In fact, the Marine Corps instituted a tattoo policy a few years ago, in the midst of the Iraq War, which further limits the available pool of recruits. Yet the USMC has reached and exceeded its recruiting goals every year.

[Dinner]

Except my post is based on facts and personal experience while your's is based on nothing more then your imagination.

[Asher]

Marines and Army both suck.

[Dinner]

BTW if you actually speak Arabic then the Army would be a much better fit for you. Both might pay you the same but there is much more opportunity for advancement in the Army since it is larger and actually has more openings at any given time. As for your claims that the tiny Marine Corps is more hard core... Try getting into the Rangers, Airborne (which I got into), or even more into SF. They're all much larger and much better trained. The Army just specializes people more then the Marine Corps.

[Dinner]

Marines and Army both suck.

Personal experience from your men in uniform fetish, eh?

[Al B. Sure!]

Except my post is based on facts and personal experience while your's is based on nothing more then your imagination.

What did I say that is imagination?

It is a fact that right now, the Marine Corps has higher ASVAB requirements than the Army. It is also a fact that the Marine Corps requires a high school diploma but allows GED recruits to come in (as long as they do not exceed 5% of yearly recruits) if they meet a minimum ASVAB score (which I believe is 50). Meanwhile, 17% of Army recruits do not have high school diplomas.

Are you taking issue with any of that?

You then said that the reason for the discrepancy is that the Army has had to lower standards to reach manpower goals because of the wars. Why is it that the Marine Corps has not been forced to lower standards to reach manpower goals because of the very same wars?

Also, anyway, the Marine Corps has higher physical fitness standards. I dare you to refute that.

[Al B. Sure!]

BTW if you actually speak Arabic then the Army would be a much better fit for you. Both might pay you the same but there is much more opportunity for advancement in the Army since it is larger and actually has more openings at any given time. As for your claims that the tiny Marine Corps is more hard core... Try getting into the Rangers, Airborne (which I got into), or even more into SF. They're all much larger and much better trained. The Army just specializes people more then the Marine Corps.

No. I don't speak Arabic. I know a few words but I don't know it anywhere near well enough. I suppose with my ethnic background if I were to learn it, it would be an asset.

And there's Force Recon, mother****er

Anyway, honestly, I'm considering just going reserves. I'm still debating. I want to do a combat arms MOS or Ground Intel though. Still trying to decide what would be the best direction for my life.

[Dinner]

The Marines have spent more on advertising in recent year, I'll give them that.

[Dinner]

And there's Force Recon, mother****er

And both of the dumb ****s in Force Recon would get massacred by the tens of thousands of SF or hundreds of thousands of Rangers and Airborne. Scale. Scale is what you fail to comprehend.

[Al B. Sure!]

Sums it all up: