Should Army and Marines (or components of) consolidate?

Absolutely not

The only reason this hasn't happened is because it would be cost prohibitive, imagine the cost of teaching 200,000 marines to write with pencils instead of crayons. Take it easy troops just adding a little levity to the conversation. This country gets its money's worth and a lot more from both USMC and USA. But you got to admit the crayon thing was pretty funny.

I was an E-5 at fort sill in 69. As an a instructor, I taught many a marine. The are marines and are not able to function in a normal way. Marines are Marines. Thank you for being you but how you march to your old cadence is beyond me. God bless all you service members

Never! Semper Fi!

The training is different mentally. I was 18 when I got out of bootcamp & Itr. I felt like I could lick the world. The best way to put it is: "Its not the big dog in the fight, Its the fight in the dog. That was 60 years ago. Marines take care of their own. If I was ordered to charge head long into the enemy I would have been scared as hell but I would have done it. We are marines for life. That EAG. insigna is The best. I was on Okinawa in the early 60,s The 3rd marine divison was a combat ready division We had duty sections 25% of the company was always on standby The Army Navy & Air Force had dependents. The marines didn't. The saying was : If we wanted you to have a wife we would have issued you one. The politicans that after WW2 we didn't need marines anymore they could be part of the army. When the Korean war started the army almost lost south korea. If it hadn't been for the regular and reserve marines South Korea would be communist today.

Sure. Fiscally speaking it makes sense. The Marine Corps could still be unique within whatever consolidated branch might be created. Similar to Special Forces/Seals. I am a retired Marine and one can still feel special for earning a unique qual or title within another branch. Change is hard but I believe we will see it in the future.

Two axioms apply:

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
and
"If it's stupid, but it works, it isn't stupid."

As an Army Infantryman, not only "NO," but "FUCK NO!" Jarheads joined to be "Marines." We who go into harms way by choice are attached to our traditions and symbols. I joined to be an Infantry Soldier. Don't try to take that away; the results will be negative.

No. It would sap the esprit de corps of the Corps. And the non-combat arms Army (and I am Army Infantry, so I am already crazy,) would weigh the Corps down with their bullcrap, and the Combat Arms of both would never be the same. Both services need an archrival who they grudgingly have to give some respect too, if for no reason to inspire each to work to be better than the other.

Ultimately we should all consolidate. Besides the duplication of effort among services being almost wasteful think of the promotion ability and varied duty stations that would open up!

Overall, I would say no. Firstly it would be logistical nightmare. The Army is so over and under strength in a variety of jobs that it isn't even funny. I believe adding the Marine Corps to the equation would bring more problems than solutions. Then you'd have to take into account the differences not only in rank structure, but the rate at which the two branches promote their SMs. There's also the difference in doctrine taught to the SMs from each of their respective services. Then we need to look at what are we going to do with all of the USMC's fixed wing and rotary wing assets? They don't use the same helicopters as the US Army, and the Army doesn't use fixed wing A/C. Where are we going to get the funding to buy additional AH-64s, UH-60s and etc for the USMC pilots? What about training the pilots for the different platforms? Do the USMC SMs