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I, too, appreciate your pride in your service. But as to "top of the food
chain," I have to disagree.
I will admit that, to a certain extent, the Marines are an "elite" force,
and this is precisely why they are not "at the top of the food chain." No
other service or force in the world has the striking power, and more
importantly, staying power, of the United States Army. You want air
supremacy, you call the Air Force. You want control of the sea lanes, you
call the Navy. You want to take a beachhead and secure it for the *main*
element (read, the Army), then you call the Marines. But if you want to
take and hold ground, and force the enemy to capitulate, then you call the
Army. This is the *only* way to fight and win wars, which is of course the
mission of the Army.
And before you bring up the aberration that was Kosovo, keep in mind that
Milosevic succumbed as much to political pressure as to the constant
bombings (which actually weren't all that constant, with weather,
maintenance, etc.), and that when all is said and done, it is the Army that
is still there today, preserving the objectives that we sought to meet.
Hope I don't come off as too hostile here. My main point is that each
service has a unique and vital mission, and that no service can accomplish
its mission without some help from the others, but the bottom line is that
to a certain degree, ALL of our "sister" services support the Army in one
way or another.
--
William A. Swanberg
CPT, SC
Commander, 229th Signal Company (TACSAT)
swanberg@msn.com
"Bill Farkas" <kfar@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:Fq3pFs.Cqn@lugnet.com...
> In lugnet.general, William A. Swanberg writes:
> > Having also been "in an armed conflict on foreign soil" (in fact, I was • in
> > the middle of Iraq with the 1st Cav while the Marines were still sailing
> > back and forth in the Arabian Gulf playing decoy, but I digress),
>
> This is an incredibly ridiculous statement. While the Army Airborne were • the
> first troops on the ground (with M16's only), everyone knows that the • Marines,
> thanks to the maritime prepositioning system, were the first fully • equipped
> armed contingent prepared to do precise and extensive harm. Everyone also • knows
> that the Marines occupied the forwardmost positions during the entire
> occupation. Everyone also knows why this is. Yes, there was a diversionary
> tactic in the beach landing scenario, but this illustrates, yet again, my
> point. Were the Iraqis concerned about the 1st Cav or the impending beach
> landing? Answer this for yourself. Regardless, this was a small decoy • force,
> the bulk of the Marines in theater were way out in front of any other • units and
> causing a whole heck of a lot more mayhem. I appreciate your pride in your • unit
> and branch of service but, again, everyone knows the truth about who the • top of
> the food chain is.
>
>
> Bill
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