Should Army and Marines (or components of) consolidate?

No

Having served as an NCO in the Marines and an Officer in the Army I say absolutely not! The traditions, motivation, and Esprit de Corps demonstrated daily by the Marines are unmatched by any other fighting force. Semper Fi, Mac!

No, the few and the proud earned the Eagle, Globe and Anchor.

Never. They have two different purposes.

When I signed up for the Marines at the tender age of 17, my father did not want his daughter to join the military at all, much less the Marines. My father was career Air Force, one of my grandfathers was Army, the other was Army Air Corps and went to the Air Force when they split. My mother was Naval Reserve and my brother was Army reserve, Navy, and finally got it right and went Marine. When my father asked me why the Marines my reply was simple, if not what he wanted to hear. I told him "I have already been a girl scout, so the Air Force and Navy hold no appeal, and everybody and their brother goes in the Army. I want a challenge and something I can be proud of". I became a Marine. There is a pride that being a Marine entitles you to. I don't know what the standard is now but when I went in, you could go from the Marines to any other branch and not have to go through their basic training, but no matter what other branch you had been in, you still had to go through Marine Corps basic to become a Marine. There is a reason for that and to insinuate that the Marines and the Army can so easily merge their identities is ludicrous. I understand you want to no tacticly and logically without personal feelings whether it is a good decision. I say you will never be able to take the feelings out of the equation. We Marines are a stubborn and proud bunch and did not sign up for the Army life. I would absolutely hate to see my beloved Corps become just another offshoot of the Army.

No. I served in both and there are very big differences between the two and both have completely different mind sets and missions.

I would not. Aside from the similarities, these two sister services do have two distinct and separate missions. That is just my two cents as an old retired Army (Cavalry) CSM.

No they should not. Although they both have basically the same role in combat their peace time missions are very different. The Corps is a smaller entity that is part of the navy and are deployed assault ships and other naval vessels. Whereas the Army is land based with post around the world. The Corps is responsible for our the security of our embassy's and attacking/securing coastal areas. The Army's main responsibility is national security and ground offences along with airborne operations. Leave it all well enough alone.

I do find it insulting when some on here say the marines have a higher standard and more pride then the Army. Because that is BS and just plain wrong on so many levels. I'm not going to sit here and say one is better then the other. To answer the question I say no to combine them. We are two totally different branches with totally different mind set. I respect all branches of our great military forces and will not insult them by saying the Army is the better branch of our armed forces. I am proud to have served with every branch out there. I know everybody has their own opinion and they are entitled to have one. I'm just happy that the US of A has the best military forces in the world by far.

From a logical stand point absolutely not. The army would see mission creep on an unprecedented scale. Take the Marine Corps from an idea of soldiers of the sea a quickly deploying expeditionary force. The Corps has limited man power which dictates a limited (yet often times heavy handed) response to threats. Often when marine commanders ask for more, they get told there is nothing more to send, I have witnessed this first hand. If the army integrated the magtf into the fold and the missions it accepts how often would a limited operation get drawn into a full scale conflict. It is good to have a Corps that can give a military response without committing the full force of the U.S. military.