Why does the Army not have as much pride as the Marines?

Sorry guys, But when You're the Finest it's hard to be humble. Semper Fi

The USMC practices what the European militaries do - “Regimental Identity”. Different dress uniforms and unique accrutraments give them a better sense of pride. Even The Royal Green Jackets in England who are required to display a yellow ribbon as punishment for an act of regimental cowardice hundreds of years ago are taught a sense of pride in their unit’s colors and uniforms as they fight to have the yellow streamer removed

Like the Navy, the Marines have a focus on tradition. The Army was never like that for me. That tradition elicits a lot of pride.

I think it has to do with the sizes of the services. In my experience elements of the army combat arms units of similar size ie Airborne units and Rangers, Armor units and air cav. Have equal levels of pride! Special ops units have even more pride than the Marines. I think the pride is based in past present and future combat successes. The army is huge as a whole and has more support units than combat arms. I know all the elements make the whole work and are needed and still the pride of service for most comes from the feeling of being a warrior not support.

Every unit I was in had a great degree of esprit de corps (no pun intended), they were all infantry units which were completely different from any other branch in the Army. Things I saw in POG units would never be tolerated in a line unit. When I was a support platoon leader in an infantry battalion I had a bunch of 88 series truck drivers. They had never run 5 miles before but we worked up to it. Everyone bitched their share but don't dis the unit in front of them if you weren't one of them.

I served in the US Army for over 20 years and had the opportunity to work with all of the services in a joint assignment. The Marines are the smallest of our services and perhaps their smaller size fosters an attitude of elitism that is seen in their fierce loyalty to the Corps. By contrast, I think the loyalty toward the Army as a service is diluted due to its sheer size. The Army has great morale at the large unit level (i.e., 82nd Airborne, 101st Airborne, "Big Red 1", The Cav, "Rock of the Marne (3d ID), 75th Ranger Regiment, Special Forces, etc.) High morale and close unit identification among soldiers is very evident in within battalion and brigade-sized units. Where you see poor morale, you generally find poor leadership. The size and diversity of the Army's missions and focus make it hard to foster intense loyalty to the Army as a whole. Consider the differences between the Army Corps of Engineers, Army Materiel Command and 1st Special Forces Group. All are critical to the Army's overall mission and purpose; all have vastly different mission focus.

Individually as a unit they will, not as a whole, Stars Shine brighter in a Galaxy, then within a Universe.

CSM Ryan after 28 years in Us Army I have seen the leadership fall so bad that the junior soldiers are following the leader. Our SGMs and officers. Are losing there edge. I read a book recently about troops in Afghanistan and it made me sick the lack of leadership they had sex party’s and leadership was doing the same thing. So sad.

CSM Carl Cunningham You don't know me SGM, but I have lots of pride, and I set the standard for my Soldier's to stimulate and while I don't walk around proving anything to anyone, my actions will speak volumes.

We're humble.