Short version: Marines are much more oriented towards being an assault force-- hit hard, hit fast, under bad conditions. The tradeoff is that they don't have the organic support staff that the Army does (priests, doctors/medics, etc. are provided by the Navy). There's a saying that 'every Marine is an infantryman'- which is not true in the Army. Every single Marine is trained to fight as an infantryman just in case everything else goes to pot.
The Army, on the other hand, is enormously larger, and in the end carries more firepower (if I recall correctly). An individual unit of the Army isn't as hard-hitting, but the Army has more and heavier weapons available than the Marines. Trick is, they're not necessarily organic to the unit, and may take longer to get into position. The Army can't and doesn't deploy quite as rapidly as the Marines do-- Marines can put ~2000 troops almost anywhere in the world within a few hours with the MEUs. Those 2000 will, between them, have ground combatants, a few armored vehicles (I think), and both fixed- and rotary-wing air support. The Marines aren't designed to be a holding force, though, and need to be resupplied and backed up by the Army. So, they complement each other by doing different things.
Oh, and just to state what someone will call obvious if I don't: Marines are far more equipped for amphibious assaults and landings than the Army is. They're also better trained for it.
Iam_TheHegemon127 karma
Short version: Marines are much more oriented towards being an assault force-- hit hard, hit fast, under bad conditions. The tradeoff is that they don't have the organic support staff that the Army does (priests, doctors/medics, etc. are provided by the Navy). There's a saying that 'every Marine is an infantryman'- which is not true in the Army. Every single Marine is trained to fight as an infantryman just in case everything else goes to pot.
The Army, on the other hand, is enormously larger, and in the end carries more firepower (if I recall correctly). An individual unit of the Army isn't as hard-hitting, but the Army has more and heavier weapons available than the Marines. Trick is, they're not necessarily organic to the unit, and may take longer to get into position. The Army can't and doesn't deploy quite as rapidly as the Marines do-- Marines can put ~2000 troops almost anywhere in the world within a few hours with the MEUs. Those 2000 will, between them, have ground combatants, a few armored vehicles (I think), and both fixed- and rotary-wing air support. The Marines aren't designed to be a holding force, though, and need to be resupplied and backed up by the Army. So, they complement each other by doing different things.
Oh, and just to state what someone will call obvious if I don't: Marines are far more equipped for amphibious assaults and landings than the Army is. They're also better trained for it.
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