Given how important tabs are in the Army, should a prior service Marine now in the Army have a special tab indicating their background?

I went from the Marine Corps to the Army in the 70's. I never saw combat in either branch BUT my bearing, my manner, my uniform (not to mention shooting) all said prior service, so no need for a special tab. (I had a hard time with saluting indoors without a cover), To tell you the truth, , it was a pain in the a** always changing the patches the Army had and getting new brass that had to be changed too when you moved to other units and bases.

I misread the post just like I do instructions on assembling a bicycle and got it wrong, of course.
The answer from this old Marine is that we wouldn't need a tab. You'd know in short order because we'd let you know. Over and over. Just Marines being Marines. We're kinda proud of it.

Should a prior service Marine now in the Army have a special tab indicating their background?

No. Because Marines know that a simple fucking piece of cloth attached to your clothing doesn't mean anything. Every time I look at an Army uniform, I am reminded of the movie "Office Space", in which Jennifer Aniston is compared to her counterpart because he has 37 pieces of flare and she doesn't.

It's the pieces-of-flare collecting assclowns that eventually work their way into leadership positions and want to create more pieces of flare to show off everything they've done, Kindergarten style. Maybe I can get some ribbons and tabs for all the distance courses I did in the Marines. Math for Marines. Finance for Marines. Etc, etc. I'll be decked out.

Should a prior service Marine now in the Army have a special tab indicating their background?

No. Because Marines know that a simple fucking piece of cloth attached to your clothing doesn't mean anything. Every time I look at an Army uniform, I am reminded of the movie "Office Space", in which Jennifer Aniston is compared to her counterpart because he has 37 pieces of flare and she doesn't.

Not sure about the tab situation. I do know you can wear your medals and ribbons awarded to you as a Marine though. They have made accomodations for the one Sikh who serves in the Army that he can wear his traditional headdress, so I would suggest getting ahold of someone in charge of Army Uniform Regulations and asking them directly.

Good Luck and Semper Fidelis

Will they have tabs for other branches of service? Why have a prior service tab at all? In answer to the question presented....No!

We have all we need. It's an emblem with the Eagle, Globe and Anchor.

Yes

As a Veteran Marine with combat time, when I became a soldier, I was roundly informed that my 15+ years of service as a Marine Machine Gunner (0331) meant absolutely squat. It pretty much set the tone for the rest of my "hitch". I was told that I didn't talk correctly, because the Army doesn't stand "watches"... I watched a supposed NCO give a class on the weapon system in which I had specialized (the M2 .50 HMG) and I finally had to step in after the "instructor" made his third error ("cocking lever" (on the bolt vs. "retracting slide lock lever" (the handle sticking out on the right side of the gun to charge it), improper timing procedure, no mention of setting headspace during pre-mission prep.
I actually had to stand toe to toe with some pretty smug NCOs and fight to get them to realize that I was right, and they were wrong.
I was fortunate enough to work with a number of NCOs who were thorough professionals, but there were plenty who bought too heavily into the whole Army/Marine rivalry.

No because if you wore a tab it would be harder for you to blend in with rocks and those bus seats in Kuwait.