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

C2 SGM, I too still love the Army I once served (even though the girl did try to kill me several times LOL), there is the same kind of pride in the Army that you are speaking about. But (unfortunately) it seems to reside exclusively as a rule in the combat arms side of the house. The Marine Corps. being the smallest branch of the four branches means that even those in traditional noncombat MOS's will have had to fill a short fall as a grunt because !: The Corps. being smaller personal wise, need to be able to draw on anyone from any of it's support units to fight should they find themselves in a tight spot, who have better than average amount of infantry experience than his counterpart in the Army would. The Army being the largest branch (larger than it's three sister services combined) has a greater reservoir of combat arms personal that it has rarely had to pull clerks, mechanics or cooks into every soldier and marines overall job of rifleman. I'm not saying there are no hard core proud soldiers in the noncombat support MOS's, but the combat arms side of the Army house is where you will find that same pride that you spoke of the Corps. having, the same courage and combat proficiency and toughness, the only real difference is that each has a different culture which plays a good part in how the fore mention are expressed by those troops (Soldier or Marine.). I do know from what I myself experienced from the time I enlisted in 1982 at 17 and all the changes I saw in the Army in particular and Marines in general, right up to the end of my last deployment to OIF in 05 I can honestly say that the PC culture that creeped into the Army and Corps. have done harm to overall attitudes of it's members and the harm of the 8 years of the last administration were significant to the moral, culture and psychology of the 2 branches. With the new administration, retooling and a Def. Secretary like Mattis who knows what needs to be fixed, there is reason to be optimistic. The military as you know, is unique as an institution among all the other institutions that make up the moving parts of the federal government in that it exists as a subculture (warrior culture) which concepts of courage, honor, valor and patriotism are not the quasi concept they seem to be in the civilian world, but real, tangible way of believing, conducting ones self and to live by. The last 2 Democrat administration (Clinton, Obama) did serious harm to the military culture by using it as a social engineering experiment.I could write a book, but you are a senior grade NCO, you know what I am saying.

Pride to me is an individual state of mind, in any branch of service the soldier, sailor, or Marine is a reflection of their respect of self. While in service, deployed to Nam, there was not so much unit pride, or even individual, but pride was who we stood beside, those fought alongside, the dedication and respect to perform top shelf with no thought about it. So i suppose the training, dedication to brothers in arm to me made the difference. Coming back to the world, being stationed at a training school as an instructor, there seemed to be a lack of brotherhood and respect for one another, a loss of pride if you will. So again I say pride comes from inside, the spirit, the love, not from the uniform or the unit.

I disagree. There are two armys. The regular army or "Big Army" and Special Operations Forces. The SOF Units and personnel love what they do and care about one thing and that is completeing the mission. It doesn't matter if you are an operator or support. You take pride above all the rest. It starts with the Airborne and goes all the way afterwards.

It's called Quiet Confidence. Already stated, go in, work hard, get the job done. No need to call attention. Everyone in my unit had a tremendous amount of pride. Stealth Pride.

I think it’s just a difference in culture. The Marine Corps exists and thrives on a warrior culture. Right from the yellow footprints in bootcamp, Marines are given expectations to live up to. It’s our warrior ethos. You will never see a Marine recruiting ad offering money for college or the like. Marines typically join to be our nation’s warriors. You get some of that from the Army, but it’s just what Marines do, and how they are expected to be.

I worked JTF for much of my career. As an army SPC I stood Guard Post One in a US Embassy under the direction of the Marine Det. I had a Navy Commander for a boss, and answered to Col Mattis for reports(Yes that Mattis). Later in my career I worked with a marine LtCol assigned to my unit as a liaison for the artillery. He called a few of us E-7's "Gunny" as a show of respect for the team he was working with. When you look at the population of the army vs. marines the Army Artillery Branch has as many members as the entire Marine Corps. In the Corps they go to boot camp on the East or West Coast. The Army has boot camps all over the place, however according to the MOS will determine where you do basic and AIT. The marines only have a few places of training. Marines are all Riflemen, and anything else is just additional duty. Army are all Infantry, but once we get sent to MOSQ we tend to stay in that job our whole career with some exceptions. A marine "Commo Dog" may be put in a rifle squad one day, and get promoted and made a presidential security guard the next based on evaluation. Marines have to be tougher, because I have eaten in their chow halls. Anyone that can survive that has my respect. Just like Army Artillery or Signal, the Marines are a branch of the Navy. So in population and training they are similar in that respect. Army soldiers take pride in branch, so do Marines!

The Marine's, NOT TO DOWN PLAY THERE IMPORTANCE BY ANY MEANS, are, most times, at the head of the line in all public coverage. They tend to be the ones that you here about all the time. I have to admit, I respect the Marines, as much as I respect All of our Military.
However, it just seems that all other branches of our Military have to take a back seat to them. We ALL serve, fight a common enemy when necessary, bleed the same blood, & when it comes down to it, HAVE EACH OTHETS BACKS , when necessary! Is on branch better than the other? I don't think so. It takes ALL of us to get the whole job done, no matter what role we play. When it comes right down to the shit hitting the fan, we all must remember, no matter what your "job description" we are all trained to be the same, INFANTRY!!!!! WE ALL FIGHT FOR THE SAME RIGHTS & FREEDOMS! JUST BECAUSE WE MIGHT WARE DIFFERENT STYLE UNIFORMS, WE SHOULD TAKE PRIDE IN SERVING OUR COUNTRY ABOVE ALL ELSE!!!

The Marines are big on PR...everything seems magnified. The Army just quietly does its job including training some Marine specialties. All the services are superb and deserve any accolades. Being quiet and humble is a great quality.

Wow! What a Condescending statement. Lol. For the sake of an adult conversation, I'll pretend this is a legit and serious question. Even though there is a 99% chance you're just being a douche bag. Haha. I'm guessing you're doing basically what my responseis going to be.

There is a major difference between "pride" and "ego". What you're doing is the average marine thought process (I'm infantry army and my brother is infantry marines), I've had this debate with my brother before, who agreed 100%.

Undoubtedly, marines are very proud and have every right to be. However, the majority of what you're asking about is "ego" and an average military response system from any branch, especially when put in a room together. To be proud, one doesn't have to gloat about their time in service or unzip to see whos bigger. Lol.

Trust me, the army is every bit as proud as the marines. Especially grunts! If you want to go have an army vs marine, "who's bigger" contest, just go look for a Rakksan. Who is every bit as proud as any marine. Rakkasans (the red headed step children of the army), are very outspoken and love a good "ego" contest, like you suggest. They also have every right to be, since we are one of (if not still the #1), most highly decorated unit in the entire u.s.a military. ;-)

In conclusion, your statement is nothing more than a straw man arguement (if you're a marine, you'll probably need to Google that....lol just messing...sort of) and illogical.

I have nothing but love for all branches (especially my brother and all marines). Neverless, this particular debate is senseless. You can't use a blanket statement about "pride" when you're actually discussing "ego". The marines are drilled from the beginning to have a large ego and it continues throughout. Personally I think it's a cool trait to have, but that doesn't make you any more "proud" than the army.

Retired Army. It isn’t a lack of pride or unit esprit-de-Corps that is lacking in the Army, it’s that the Army is substantially different, being larger and more diversified. The Corps is smaller and therefore has a much stronger sense of elitism. Marines instill that a Marine is part of a brotherhood, that once a Marine, always a Marine. Marines also, being much smaller, do not have as many units so that when Marines transfer within the Corps, they usually have only a few places they will transfer to, and most likely there will be others in their new unit they served with before. The Army, because of its size and diversity of units, makes
It less likely that a soldier will transfer into a unit he or she previously served in. Also, the Army’s mission is different, with many MOS’s that are not in the Corps. In the Army, there are elite units, some that rival the size of Corps (Airborne).