Do you consider the term jarhead and other names for the different branches of service offensive?

Have a friend and old neighbor that was a Marine and we harass each other every now and then.

It's supposed to be abrasive, but not demeaning.
Being a doc, I've been protected by devil dogs like I was their kin, but we call each other all sorts of 3 and 4 letter words.

If a Marine is offended by the term Jarhead, are they really a Marine?

It depends entirely on who says it, and the circumstance, but for the most part no it is not offensive.

The more offensive the better, but it must have wit and class.

There's no such thing as "offensive" in the armed services. We all left that crap at the door prior to repeating the oath of enlistment.

I'm a Squid. I retired as a Squid.

It is funny, I only get annoyed when some chest thumper hears I was in the Navy and wants to give me the 10min speech on how much harder life was for him in Iraq or Afghanistan... I let them go for a while before I tell them I was a Corpsman attached to the Marines and did first two of 5 Iraq tours with the Infantry....

Not when a fellow GI is using those terms. We've earned that right. Civilians... Not so much

You know, the other guys can say what the want abut the Air Force. HOWEVER---Every time they get their butts in a sling there's nothing prettier to them than the sight of a flock of F-16s or an AC-130 gun ship coming to their rescue! Not to mention the AF's aeromedical evacuation system. The thing to remember is to keep good humor and comradeship with the various nicknames be they "jar heads"(Marines),grunts (Army), Squids (Navy), or "Zoomies" (Air Force). We are all brothers/sisters in arms and wor to the foe who takes us on!!!

Jar heads don't get offended

I am still called a Jarhead even after being out since 81. Its out of respect they say it!

I always liked it, so it was never offensive to me.

PFC Justin Gkuspie - I fine with the various nicknames. However, any term of endearment had best fly our of a fellow service-member's (or Veteran's) pie hole. Civilians haven't earned the right to get chippy with any of us... unless, maybe, it's a military mom.

Though I've never called a Marine a Jarhead before, inter-service rivalry and name calling is in good fun. I seriously doubt anyone who served in a different branch would be offended by the name calling PFC Justin Gkuspie.

I grew up as the oldest son to a career Army soldier. When old enough and graduated High School I enlisted in the Navy because I was tired of seeing that green uniform everywhere I went. So my first week in Hospital Corpsman A school in San Diego I was told that every fifth class that graduates takes the short bus ride to Pendleton to become Field Corpsmen with the Marines. Damned if we were not that fifth class. So I have heard them all, Squid, Pecker Checker but the one I respect the most is Doc spoken by my Marines. I think that there will always be name calling in the service but it is more tolerable coming from ones that served then from those that have never stood up and taken the oath with their right hand in the air. Keep the rivalry going guys and gals. Doc Gilly.

How can you get upset by terms of endearment?

I had a retired Gunny tell me, "You can always tell a Marine, you just can't tell 'em much!" I share that with every Jarhead I meet. Most remind me that ARMY stands for Ain't Ready to be a Marine Yet. All in fun.

When used by civilians it could be considered derogatory, but it is used often among Marines.
The term originates from the "high and tight" haircut that many Marines have, which makes their head look like a jar with early handles. Just like the leathernecks uniforms protected against saber slashes, so too does that haircut protect from lice. Both titles earned by getting thru bootcamp wherein one of the recruits in my platoon from wayback in the Ozarks who had never seen a toothbrush in his life and had lice jumping off his head in the first group shower after the shave; guy also had a problem with "left, right, left..." when marching and the D.I.'s used to really ride him until we got to Edson range and he shot an expert 250 {i.e., never missed a shot} and from then on he was everybody's favorite guy!
"Oorah jarhead, semper fi!"