Should Army and Marines (or components of) consolidate?

Would it be prudent to look at consolidating the Marine Corps into the Army, possibly. The issue of course is to determine the extent of consolidation. Consolidation would not necessarily lead to an identity crisis for the Marines. Consolidating the ground forces could be beneficial and help to reduce some redundancy between the Army and Marines. A few years ago there was much discussion in regards to that topic as leaders wanted to ensure there was little redundancy between the two services. The Marine Corps is consolidated into the Department of the Navy now so moving them into the Army would not be any different. They each need to keep their own traditions and training but there would be benefits to consolidation. One, the Army can continue to develop the doctrine to effectively support logistically moving a Marine Expeditionary Force over long distances similar to what happened during OIF. We could work more closely in integrating intelligence and fires and the Army could benefit from how the Marines use Air/Ground teams. There could be consolidation of the use of national training facilities where the Marines use NTC instead of 29 Palms. Keeping the Marine Expeditionary Force is a must. A good benefit that could be explored is to have the 3rd Marine Division be created as the first joint division were the Army airborne brigade in Alaska could instead come under the 3rd Marine Division. This could then allow the Army to instead potentially shift a division back to Europe which we should have never left as completely as we did to begin with. Traditions of course need to be honored and in no way do I think anyone wants to see Marine traditions diminished. The Marine Corps should also keep their own training facilities, especially boot camp though we need to continue doing consolidated training at the major centers of excellence. Even if the Marine were consolidated into the Army I do not see a reduced relationship with the Navy.

I read where someone in the comments said this and it goes directly with my thinking. The Marines wouldn't be able to maintain our quality and the Army couldn't maintain it's quantity if we combined forces.

The branches each have unique rolls they fill and should be left as they are.

You could in theory combine the branches but many things would be lost in translation. The entire excerise of consolidation would cost TRILLIONS of dollars. Just getting new name tapes alone for every current Marine would cost $600k. Imagine the cost painting USA on every piece of equipment.
Now we could simply phased out the Marine Corps. You would have to retrain several commands to fill the roles that the Marine Corps plays. Creating a single MAGTF would shoot up into the Millions quickly (there are currently 16 or so including reserves which include MEFs MEBs and MEUs) Not to mention retraining a whole new group to fill in for MARSOC, MSG, MCSF Co. and Amphibious Assualt. So on paper it would look good but in practice it would be hell and creating entire training commands and setting back years of passed on knowledge from our Pacific Campaign in WWII alone would cost us dearly. The question as whole is monetarily out of the question and would be a detriment to our National Security as whole.

Absolutely not. Set aside all the emotional and "Service Pride" arguments for a moment, the two services have different missions. The United States Marine Corps is an Amphibious, Expeditionary Assault Force - 1st to Fight. The Army is an built around behemoth logistical and infrastructural occupational force.

The Army is neither Amphibious /Littoral-focused nor built to rapidly respond. Marines can be on the ground within 24 hours. The Army generally takes 30 days or more to mobilize.

No, up until the 50's there was only three branches of the armed forces the Army, Navy, and the Cost Guard. The "Army Air Corps" went to whats now the Air Force. So if anything the Air Force should consolidate back with the Army

No! We had Marines on our FOB in Iraq and while i enjoyed serving with my brothers in arms there are differently two different mine sets on how things are to be done. As stated before both are combat services with the same goals in mine, its just the getting there that is different.


SSG Dan Long (Retired)
USARNG

This subject has been brought before congress and the white house on more then one occasion as well as getting rid of the Corps all together. But as now it hasn't happened. the corps has battled to be and both the Army High Brass and Navy High Brass has agreed with the Marine Corps that it needs to be it's own entity. Tho there are many Cross over duty's They Army has their main duty and the Corps has theirs....The times seem to have both doing the same job right now...each's main tasks as a unit will always be different. The Marines as a Fighting Force will always have the job of Advancing the main Fighting/ Defencive Force in Campaigns overseas when it comes to Boots on the ground. The Army as a whole secures the ground already taken by the advanced force.
what I said above does not include Special Forces and Special Operations nor the C.I.A. Field Operatives that pull from the military's spec ops.
Depending on the conflict there are Co-ops where they do the same jobs. and the history of the Marine Corps has always been Amphibious Assault and ship protection for the Navy. But as a Regular Force The Army and The Marine Corps Have different and important jobs. That's why the Marine corps is still around as an individual unit. If you read up on Marine Corps history you will see how many times they have wanted to meld or disband the Corps.

The only way to combine the two would be for the army to have to join the USMC. Wouldn't work any other way. Marines are trained way harder with way more discipline. Youd cause the Marines to go on strike if they ( army)didnt earn the eagle globe and anchor .

Combinining the Navy, execuse me the Marines would be a bad idea. It would be trying to mix oil with water. Both entities serve a unique purpose but at the same time compliment each other. Although I really dislike saying it, the Marines would be bring a lot to the table when it comes to discipline and traditions if that were to happened. I have been in 18 and 9 active I really appreciate the tradition of discipline that the Marines have been able to keep (outside looking in) despite of many changes.