Should Army and Marines (or components of) consolidate?

Is this an actual thing that could happen? Or is this just a debate?

Yes.

I agree that a combined marine/army branch would not work well especially considering how the branches came to be and their respective nature's, well described by Col. Labrador. But what if we were to effectively achieve the goal of decreasing the quantity of both branches and streamlining communication and whatnot within the DoD by rejoining the Navy with the Marines and the Army with the Air Force? With the Army starting to perform more missions and ops similar to those carried out by USAF personnel, and the infantry doing less and less fighting and more support of local militias, if we were to adapt the Army Infantry mission to be more support based vrs the traditional boots on the ground. And combine the Army MOSs with their AFSC counterparts, and do a similar situation with the Marines and Navy (forgive me I'm not as knowledgeable on Navy and Marines history and current information; I grew up as an Army brat and am now an Airman.) Not to say we don't need boots on the ground, but establishing air superiority and maintaining worldwide surveillance and communication is the one thing we can all agree will always make or break any op, no matter how big or small. Obviously some kinks to be worked out and massive debate on how to effectively merge leadership and chain of command, but, what if?

Lt Col Labrador gave a rational discussion. My only comment would be “ How likely would it be that any realistic “ Streamlining” of anything would be achieved by by such a merger? “sceptical”. Also an old Joint Specialty Officer USMC Ret

The Marines are a Department of the Navy. The consolidation if any should be army and airforce

alright, as an analitical stand point, yes, its possible for the Army and Marines to merge, when it comes to actually making it where they mesh or have the successes that the other have had, thats another story. The Marines for one by stand point of history are shown to be more tenacious and willing to go and destroy things than the Army, the Corps is also known to get big things done with the minimum of equipment, thats the same with some army units, yes, but that is how we are taught as a whole. The command structure is different, small unit leadership in the marines starts at the base, enabling leaders from the junior enlisted ranks and having NCOs as fire team or squad leaders instead of needing an officer or staff noncommissioned officer

So many reasons not to, but so little time to explain.

Negative! Absolutely not. Consolidating any combination of the four branches may look good on paper from a fiscal standpoint. The financial bottom line has been a factor in just about every decision in the military, both strategically and Tactically. We all know and dreaded hearing our Commanders say in briefing “We are going to do more with less”. Absolutely NONE of them wanted to have to tell us that, but the fact of the matter is there is a finite amount of money to fund the entire US Military. Technology is extremely expensive. The more high tech the military becomes, the less money you have for day to day operations. Consolidating the branches will extend how much can be accomplished with every single dollar spent. The amount of money saved on basic and technical training alone would be astonishing if you did not have to pay for the Branches to all have separate bases for training, separate training Standard Operating Procedures, separate uniforms, separate and different equipment. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. They will save billions by consolidating Operational Commands, Bases, day to day operations, logistics...
HOWEVER, at what cost would that come to the effectiveness of the most dominant and lethal military in the history of human existence? Is it really worth it to lose the overall effectiveness and lethality of having troops that are so specially and highly trained to perform highly specialized and intricate jobs and tasks that allow the US Military to operate so percisely that you could set an atomic clock by it??
The only logical and rational answer to those questions is NO.
Each branch as it’s own invaluable modus operandi that they bring to the table, along with it's own unique strategical and tactical mission objectives, that are required so that the military can adapt to any possible situation. Whether it is in combat, maintenance, transportation, Intelligence, logistics... Each have there unique skill set and are training to be more at home in certain environments, equipment to meet different statically and tactical objectives.
Common Core training is not working in our Educational system in this country. Well, it would work if what we strive to be as a nation is just mediocre. So why would we want to consolidate and combine any of our four military breaches in order to implement common core training, common core bases, common strategical and tactical modes of operations??? You only would if you wanted a mediocre military to face a NON common core world.
Now factor in a separate and fully operational US Space Command.
I will take four separate, high trained and specialize branches (Seven including the National Guard, Coast Guard and Space Command) bringing what they do to the table to form the world greatest military over a common core combined mediocre military EVERY TIME.
Just my opinion. I’m not say’n... I’m just say’n.
AIR FORCE! HARDCORE!! WORLD CLASS!!!

Objectively speaking, Marines are a different breed! If you have never served in the Marine Corps you will NEVER understand! No offence but please stay in your lane!

I have the highest regard for the USMC but I don't think they u should consolidate because the two branches fulfill two separate roles.