I never was in the Army. I was in the Marine Corps. I didn't spend any time with soldiers.
However, I had a friend who had been an armor officer in Korea. He told me there was a big difference between young Marines and young soldiers. A Marine, he said, when you told him to do something, would say 'aye, aye Sir', and shove off. A soldier would immediately start asking questions. He told me once his battalion was having a briefing and one of his soldiers wandered over to ask the battalion commander when he could get a dental appointment. What kind of socialization would produce that? A young Marine would NEVER approach a lieutenant colonel for anything. He would know to go through his chain of command. That one incident says a lot to me about the two services. Marines are socialized differently than soldiers are. The Marine Corps has a lot of institutional values that they impart to new Marines. I don't think the Army does that. I don't think the Army even has values that are Army wide the way the Marine Corps does. "Every Marine a rifleman" would be an example of that.
Of course one part of that socialization is looking down on the Army and everything it does. :)
Walt
Nuff said. That's a point for the Army right there.
At any rate, you're basing your entire judgement of the Army, America's oldest institution BTW, on a second hand account from a buddy in Korea? Come on. I will give the Marines Corps their due always- they have earned it time and time again- and when I do get to heaven- if they let Infantry Soldiers in- I am quite certain the place will be guarded by Marines. But the Army would've captured and held that ground...
Seriously, the Army and the Marines are two totally different animals. You want to make a real comparison, we'll say that the Navy is the support mechanism for the Marines and then we'll lump swabbie stories in with Marine stories. The Army is a nation (and bigger than some). The Army has every job specialty from combat all the way down to support, nurses, typists, handwringers yadda, yadda, yadda. If the Army segregated its support animal (Navy in the Marines case) into a seperate branch of the service, the Army would then be in a similar class to the Marines and could be judged as such.
I'll illustrate with a joke- at your expense. There are four General Officers sitting around bragging about whose branch is the best- Air Force, Navy, Marines, Army. The AF General says "I'll prove it- Airman! Get over there and tackle that B-52 rolling down the runway".
The Airman does this, is promptly killed by the bomber's tires and the AF General says "you see, now that's courage".
The Admiral calls up a sailor and says "Swabbie, you jump into that shark infested water and swim around that aircraft carrier".
The sailor gets eaten by the sharks and the Admiral says "No, you see, that is what makes a good sailor".
The Marine General orders the nearest Jarhead to charge an enemy machine gun nest and the Jarhead shouts "Semper Fi" and gets shot to hell.
"Now, men, with all due respect- that's what it's all about."
The Army General scratches his chin and hollers at a soldier- "Soldier, you see that machine gun that just killed that Jarhead? You charge that thing right now and kill it!"
The soldier looks at the machine gun nest, looks at the fallen Marine and says "F$ck You Sir!"
The Army General laughs and sits back and says- "Now, Gentleman, THAT truly took balls!"
Also, on a side note- the Army song is much better than the Marine song.