US Marine ranks.....

Since the US Marines are a component of the US Navy, I've often wondered why Marne Corps ranks didn't go along with the Navy ranks. So I looke it up:

BECAUSE CONGRESS SAID SO!

Nuff said.

Bob Wright

(After post thinking.)

Come to think pf it, the Navy has a rank of "Seaman Third Class." Certainly no Marine wanted to be ranked as "Third Class" anything!

Bob Wright

After WWII, the Army revised their enlisted rank system, and were planning for a Sergeant Second Class. A general whose name eludes me insisted that he wouldn't allow second class sergeants in his army, and that rank became Staff Sergeant.

Bob Wright said:

(After post thinking.)

Come to think pf it, the Navy has a rank of "Seaman Third Class." Certainly no Marine wanted to be ranked as "Third Class" anything!

Bob Wright

Click to expand...

The Navy also has Lower Half Rear and Rear Admirals. So one is only half a Rear ( and the lower half at that), while the other is a full Rear. Go figure. Must have something to do with swivel chair design.

A friend of mine was a Navy Corpsman and the head doctor at the place he was stationed was a Navy Captain. A Marine Captain came in and told my friend that he wanted to talk to the doctor.

The doctor had been up all night working on someone who had emergency surgery so my friend told the Marine that Captain Smith was unavailable. The Marine said "You tell Captain Smith that Captain Dumkopf wants to see him NOW"!!!

My friend said Yes Sir and proceeded to wake up Captain Smith... Captain Smith appeared in less than a minute in full uniform and said... "Captain! My office... NOW"!! My friend said the door closed and he heard Captain Smith tearing a piece out of Captain Dumkopf's backside! After 5 minutes the Marine slunk out of the office with his tail between his legs and Captain Smith came out to see my friend. My friend asked what the Marine wanted to see the doctor for and Captain Smith told him that he didn't know because he was too busy explaining the ranks to the Marine....

As an old Marine, I can tell you for damn sure, if you called me anything that sounded like 'semen', we'd be fighting, and your chances were never good.

As an Army guy, I find it necessary to point out the fact that "Marine" is actually an acronym:

Muscles
Are
Required
Intelligence
Not
Expected

Oooh
I hope the two of you don't live nearby each other.

I was in the Navy and I alway respected our marines. The whole time we had marines at our bases we never lost the main gate they were guarding. And they did me a favor and sold me a piece off the Apollo recovered spacecraft they were supposed to be guarding.

Enigma said:

After WWII, the Army revised their enlisted rank system, and were planning for a Sergeant Second Class. A general whose name eludes me insisted that he wouldn't allow second class sergeants in his army, and that rank became Staff Sergeant.

Click to expand...

That sounds a bit like urban legend. My brother was in the Eighth Air Force during World War II and was a staff sergeant. The NCO ranks were, at that time, sergeant, staff sergeant, technikcal sergeant and
master sergeant. First sergeant was a position, not a pay grade, though it carried a distinctive design, a master sergeant's stripes witha diamond in the field. Also the sergeant major wore the same design as first sergeant, but was only one in the regiment.

I had a very good buddy that was a former "8th and I" Marine. I used to tell him that Marines and circuses were alike; you see one you have seen them all!
The center device on an Army First Sergeant stripe is NOT a diamond; it is a "pierced lozenge"

Speaking of military ranks, I once read this and have never been able to verify it:

The Army, in the Civil War era, had an officer's rank equivilent to the Navy's ensign: it was the coronet. Likke the ensign, he was the juniorest of junior ranks.

Bob Wright

I was in the department of navy as well...........................the mens department Semper Fi bwahahahahaha
Carry On

jimbo1096 said:

Oooh
I hope the two of you don't live nearby each other.

I was in the Navy and I alway respected our marines. The whole time we had marines at our bases we never lost the main gate they were guarding. And they did me a favor and sold me a piece off the Apollo recovered spacecraft they were supposed to be guarding.

Click to expand...

Old joke about the rivalry between the Army and the Marines. I was a grunt in Vietnam, and I have more respect for the Marines than most people. Several of my friends are Vietnam Marine vets, and the feeling is mutual - if you were a grunt, you were a grunt.... didn't matter if you were Army or Marines. That "rivalry" stuff only survived for the guys in the rear.

Bob Wright said:

That sounds a bit like urban legend. My brother was in the Eighth Air Force during World War II and was a staff sergeant. The NCO ranks were, at that time, sergeant, staff sergeant, technikcal sergeant and
master sergeant. First sergeant was a position, not a pay grade, though it carried a distinctive design, a master sergeant's stripes witha diamond in the field. Also the sergeant major wore the same design as first sergeant, but was only one in the regiment.

Click to expand...

It's certainly possible. During the war, the equivalent Technician rank of Staff Sergeant was Technician Third Class. Perhaps the reference was to that. I've looked online and can't find any reference to a Sergeant Second Class. During the Civil War era, each company did have a Second Sergeant, in addition to a First Sergeant. It was a position, rather than a rank, and finding reference to that position is difficult. I did read a first-hand account of a soldier who was elected/selected as company second sergeant. And, I just read that each company (at full strength) would have a First Sergeant and three additional sergeants - 2d, 3rd, and 4th. A Sergeant Major, Quartermaster Sergeant, and Ordnance Sergeant would be at regimental level.

Speaking of core differences among the above mentioned demographics:

On some air bases the Air Force is on one side of the field and civilian aircraft use the other side of the field, with the control tower in the middle. One day on just such a field the tower received a call from an aircraft asking, "What time is it?" The tower responded, "Who is calling?" The aircraft replied, "What difference does it make?" The tower replied "It makes a lot of difference. If it is an American Airlines Flight, it is 3 o'clock. If it is an Air Force, it is 1500 hours. If it is a Navy aircraft, it is 6 bells. If it is an Army aircraft, the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 3. If it is a Marine Corps aircraft, it's Thursday afternoon. If it's National Guard, it's still a couple of hours until quitting time."

What is this about Marines needing to use crayons?

Marines will use anything they find as a weapon.
I can think of several ways to protect myself with a crayon.

I had always heard that if you gave a crayon to a Marine, he would just eat it... and purple is his favorite flavor.

Marines may like crayons for their dietary benefits. But I know they have a deep seated and wicked sense of humor.

After all, who else would dip the tips of their ammo in a pork product while letting the locals see them doing it?

If we needed ammo, we could always go over to the Army camp. They always seemed to have a better supply chain than we had.
Either that, or they just didn't like shooting as much as we did.
I remember SEALs bringing grenades back to the armory without the pins in them.
They threw the pins away and carried the grenades, ready to throw.