Should Army and Marines (or components of) consolidate?

If there is to be any consolidation of branches, push the Air Force back into the Army (the Navy has its own air element anyway). And if you really feel the need to put the Marines somewhere, have the Navy absorb us. Turn "Marine" into an MOS in the Navy, an elite infantry MOS (but not quite on the level of SEALs). Kind of like the Army's Ranger Regiment, but on a larger scale so as to make possible any future amphibious invasions. And before anyone goes on about amphibious invasions being a thing of the past, that's what they said before Korea.

This is a huge resounding NO!

No, I have been to joint service schools, and done joint service training. Each branch has its own mission set and things they bring to the table. While much of it may seem to overlap between the Army and the Marine Corps if a merger were to happen I feel that our armed services would lose the best parts of both services and be a more mediocre super branch.

Negative I have respect for anyone who serves in any branch male or female, however, each branch has a specialty that requires the need to have separate branches.

Hell no!

No I don't think they would be able too nothing personal but we as Marines had it tougher at our mos school then the soldiers at Fort Knox I was a tank mech and we had to learn a lot more of vehicles plus my wife now is still in the army and she said there is no way she would even think about being a Marine she has the utmost respect for the Corps she did a one year deployment in Iraq and supported the Marines a lot and she probably wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for them don't get me wrong she loves the army but I agree with her on how the two branches are trained

The way I feel is that you need the two branches separate. Now i am not saying one branch is better then the other but there is a rivalry there and with that rivalry both branches do better. When you are working you want your branch to be the best. So in my opinion it is for the best to keep them separate.

Let me ponder that question for a minute..NO!

WE are all looking at it either from a past or present perspective. All branches have a particular role to play and some are better at it than others, but as Americans we can adapt to anything. Missions have been changed at a stroke of a pen. Uniforms come and go. Equipment either refurbished or sold to other countries which later become our enemies. As far as training, I know for a fact that the Basic Training of all branches has changed. Any veteran will tell you that. We couldn't fathom what the veterans went through in the past when they went to Basic Training or Boot Camp. As far as Warrior Ethos, it can be taught from a unified perspective. Just because it has been done a certain way for a long time doesn't mean it cant change. Look at the Navy SEALs and the Air Force Combat Controllers which are fairly new compared to Rangers. Sure they are Special Ops, but the training evolved to suit the needs of the mission at hand. It can be done and unfortunately it probably will. Plenty of changes are coming, but we can adapt just as we have in the past.

Traditions and camaraderie aside, you can't. The Marines have always been and Naval entity. You can't just say that just because we share a combat orientation means hey we should consolidate. Make no mistake, just because - in light of recent battles - the Marines have shared responsibility over occupying Iraq and Afghanistan does not mean the two branches are the same, and you can't take the traditions away because without that, we would just be another "Army" entity. An "Army" entity we are NOT. We are separate, we always have been, always will be. Even our very origin explains that, what the Marines were made exclusively for is not the same as the Army's. Today's battlefield changes constantly, we know that, so there needs to be an entity that specializes in a certain area. I really don't see what good would come out of consolidation.