Should Army and Marines (or components of) consolidate?

NO! I mean no offense to the Army but we earned our eagle globe and anchor and if you asked any Marine that question, it's almost an insult. I have nothing against the army. Each branch serves a purpose but being a Marine is a title we carry with pride. It's sacred to us. There will always be a need for the army and there will always be a need for Marines. I respect other branches but we are "the few, the proud, the Marines". To just put us in with the Army isn't how we trained and not what we signed up for. SEMPER FI

After reading the responses, I'm seeing a lot of the emotional response vs. an objective, analytical response. To some extent, that doesn't surprise me. There is not branch in our military that carries more myth and mystique than the Marine Corps. And Marines themselves are the first to buy into and push the mystique (again, not a big deal. They seemed to have learned early that PR is important. Something the Army as a whole is not as good at). However, to really answer this question we DO need to look at it analytically.

Currently Marines are structured to be medium-weight, combined arms expeditionary force that has been optimized for seaborne deployment. Expeditionary warfare is not unique to the Marines. The Army has it's own expeditionary units (82nd, 101st, Rangers) that can get to the fight faster than the Marines can. The big difference is that the Marines come with more firepower and a more robust sustainment ability (30 days vs 3 days). Also, Marines have interoperability with the Navy that is in their DNA. Their officers are trained from day 1 side-by-side with naval officers so that they are intimately familiar with naval operations. Amphibious warfare is also a stated raison d'etre by the Marines. They have essentially taken that highly specialized role as their own and become the SME's for it.

On the other side of the coin, however, beyond force structure allowing for quicker deployment and the highly specialized amphibious role, everything else the Marines bring to the strategic table is a duplication of Army capability, and not necessarily a more capable duplication. While Marines have better strategic mobility than comparable Army units, they give up firepower and protection to do it. And once they are on the ground, they don't fight much differently than a comparable Army unit. So again, this begs the question, is there much the Marines bring that the Army can't do? The cold, analytic answer is no. The Army is capable of taking over the Marine mission. Now, this would not be without some hiccups. First the, the Army would need to develop a force structure that would allow them to conduct the Marine mission. The closest we have to a "Marine-style" MAGTF is the Strykers, but even that is not a complete 1:1 mirror. We would also have to do some training changes to accomodate the amphibious mission and requirements. Finally, there would need to be more integration with the Navy at the operational level. This will require Army officers to have more and sustained exposure to naval culture and doctrine to create the level of interoperability that the Marines and Navy currently have. In short, consolidaiton is doable, but not without some significant humps to to overcome...and that is not even addressing the emotional reaction that will come about with any plans to dissolve the Corps and roll it under the Army.

I always thought Pg 1 of the US Army Survival Manual stated "Call the Marines"

Absolutely not... We can't maintain the quantity that the Army requires and the quality the Marines require simultaneously... Plus the institutional mindsets are very different. If they were to merge, then either we adopt Marine standards, in which case Army personnel will find themselves with far more responsibility than is traditionally the case, or we keep the Army methodology, in which case a lot of former Marines will suddenly find themselves being treated like children (at least compared to what they're used to)...

Though the uniforms would be a nice thing...

Best I've seen it explained:

"The Army is a job, but the Marine Corps is an identity."

Quantity vs. Quality both services would suffer if integrated.

I doubt it would work out.

Practically speaking...
- The Marine Corps 194, 000 Active Duty with 40,000 Reserve
- US Army 546,047 Active Duty with 559,244 in Reserve and National Guard

Budgets
- Army $244.9 Billion (31.8%)
- USMC $40 Billion (4% total is derived from the allotment taken from the Navy)

US Army mission
- Preserving the peace and security and providing for the defense of the United States, the Commonwealths and possessions and any areas occupied by the United States
- Supporting the national policies
- Implementing the national objectives
- Overcoming any nations responsible for aggressive acts that imperil the peace and security of the United States

USMC mission
- The seizure or defense of advanced naval bases and other land operations to support naval campaigns;
- The development of tactics, technique, and equipment used by amphibious landing forces in coordination with the Army and Air Force
- Such other duties as the President may direct.

CAN the Army do what the Marine Corps does? Yes. Everything the Marines have done the Army has done. Amphibious capabilities? Absolutely, Normandy comes to mind. So the question then becomes who is more efficient or who gets a job done with fewer resources.

The Marine corps is a group of people whose entire existence is based upon offensive combat. The idea of defense is taught to Marines but only in the context of defending the area from attack and then mounting a counter attack. The basic question all Marine commanders ask themselves is "how do we bring the fight to the enemy." The Marine corps is a tool to be used by the President to achieve regional goals. The Marine corps is very good at this.

The Army is like any Army that has come before it. It is an organization who's entire purpose is to achieve the global strategic vision of the US. It has many different sub organizations to do this.

The argument then becomes why can't the Corps do what it does by being absorbed by the Army. I would assert that the question would have to boil down to money. The Corps is part of the Navy so we are merely switching Umbrellas. The true issue would have to be why doesn't the Army absorb the Navy.

If one is to argue that absorbing the Corps makes sense then the same logic would dictate that the absorption of the Navy would make greater sense. Why have a separate organization to project the power of the US accross the globe. Just put everyone together under one umbrella and call it the military.

Well we already do that, we just have different names for it.

The simple fact of the matter is that to change the current organization of the various armed services would not create a synergistic effect. In fact, it would create a negative effect due to the specialties involved.

Taking this out of the realm of the military and into the business world, it is the same theory as to why you have an accounting department in a computer manufacturing business and why you have outside vendors supplying you your mother boards and power supplies.

Apple does not make its own RAM modules or its own processors. They buy from others and put it all together.

Organizations specialize in their functions because that is what makes them the most effective at beating the competition.

No. I don't want to have to learn how to roll my sleeves all wrong. :-)

The Marine Corp is an expeditionary force and the Army is an occupational force. Each has a unique mission which is why it is designed the way it is, and neither can accomplish their mission without assistance for the other branches.

Marines win battles Army wins wars. That's how an old Marine explained the differences to me many years ago.

I would take it a step further and consolidate all branches under United States Department of Defense. One umbrella one budgets within the department there will be the Air/Space-Naval/Marine force- Land Combat operations/ Land Combat support- special operations Commmad. No more crazy variation of uniforms, consolidation of training centers, one doctrine, same equipment, same quality of life for families. Within an all inclusive branch you will still have the opportunity to transfer and cross train pipelines for officer and warrant officer should be more accessible and the opportunities as enlisted would be endless. However I know this is just a crazy idea.