First off I will declare that I do not mean any disrespect for any Marine serving now or in years past.
My question is this…
Is there any difference between a young man in the Marine Corps in the year 2010 and a young man in the Marine Corps during years past?
I just watched the 1st episode of “The Pacific” tonight and I have watched “Band of Brothers” many, many times. I feel like less of a man in comparison to those who served in our Armed Services during our great campaigns.
Again the question… Are our sodiers and Marines today different from their counterparts in years and wars past? Is the structure of the military different today? Do we have a more professional force in arms than we did 60 years ago?
How could we or do we categorize our fighting men and women of today versus the men who fought in Europe and the Pacific during our grandparents time?
Marines today are smarter and better trained than ever before, however thier mettle and esprit de corps is unchanged from generations past. My personal opinion.
No difference. When I was giving a class to a group of Marines that served at the Chosin Reservoir I asked them that question. To a man they said they saw no difference between themselves at 18 and the Marines they saw then. They knew if “Modern Marines” were put in the same situation they would be up to the task. They would fight you if you tried to say that a Marine today was not of the same caliber. Esprit de Corps man. Gear has changed but the men are the same.
I had a Pacific Marine father, a Vietnam Marine brother and a Iraq Marine cousin. in my view the equipment and training are window dressing. The man who fights and bleeds for his brother Marine, no matter the odds, ferociously is the same today as at Belleau Woods, Guadalcanal, Khe San, and Fallujah.
None of these combat Marines I know were iron men. They were strong and fit but they were flesh and bone, they hurt, bled and feared like anyone else. The difference is they are driven beyond flesh and bone, don’t know the word quit and will fight with whatever they have against whatever they face. I hiked one time afterwards with my brother for several days and he had just tennis shoes (yes, we were foolish), he had blisters upon blisters, and his feet bled for four days. Not one word of complaint or pain.
After their wars they lived quietly as family men and you might never know they were Marines. But I have been in a few tight spots with my dad and brother and I’ll say this, there is no one I would want more by my side in dire straits than a Marine.
I think they still make Marines like they used to.
Marines of the past have set a very high standard, and the Marines of today strive to meet or exceed those expectations. A Marine is a Marine, no matter what Generation. Semper FI
People seem to get very romantic, I guess when talking about WW2. There are differences, but war is war is war. If you took men now, had them grow up in the same timeframe, get the same training,and fight the same war, I dont see how we would be different.
God bless all of them! they may be different for different reasons but I just can’t say for sure. They are a wonderful bunch of young men, regardless if they were my father and uncles of WWII or my nephew of Iraq and Afganistan. I love them all!!
I thought the OP was trying to say that the men entering the Marine Corps back in the 1940’s had a much tougher life than the men entering the Marine Corps today. The guys back in 1940 had lived through the great depression and had none of the luxuries that we take for granted in every day life. After going through boot camp and coming out of the other side today’s recruits are tough as nails, but there is no way that you can make the case that today’s youth has had to endure half as much as hardship as the young men back then.
While I wasn’t there, my old unit was. I know about what they went through. Some of my friends lost their lives there.
I am not saying that they are inferior, simply that I believe that the toughness displayed by former generations is greater than that displayed by ours. Just as effective? Yes. But I don’t think we are as tough.
While military training isn’t perfect, it’s generally a good idea to avoid killing or seriously injuring those you intend to field as troops.
To an extent. But a lot of training today emphasizes safety over the realities of training for combat. SOF units routinely lose warriors to training accidents because they tend to train closer to the edge. Regular units certainly shouldn’t train as close to that edge because they don’t consist of the same types that SOF units do. They tend to be older, smarter, and more experienced, and know the difference between dangerous and unsafe.
That being said, we could benefit from a little more realism in our training.
One of the best training experiences the Marine Corps has to offer (at least when I was in), CAX, is also one of the most dangerous.
I think we had more people who had a lot of firearms experience in the military years ago, but now you have marines who were raised on video games, and that completely changes the name of the game. People multi task and handle stress better today. I think our military training reflects that. I read it somewhere years ago, but can’t post a link to the info.
To expound on my previous post, I would like to point out the firestorm that erupted over the Battle of Mogadishu. Colin Powell said, “The deaths of 18 American soldiers wouldn’t have even warranted a press conference in Vietnam.”
As a society, our tolerance for loss of life has decreased dramatically. This is, for the most part, a good thing. But we can’t have a standing military that is prepared for war without training hard, and training realistically. This unfortunately means that people will get seriously hurt or die in training. Not to say that we should be cavalier about it, but it does happen.
The OP’s post may as well be a generalization, and not as a question on a comparison of a serviceman today vs one from times past.
At the very bare basics of the question then, everyone from times past would at least in some small way be “tougher” than anyone from today, not necessarily because they were tougher, but that’s just how life was for many folks back then.
If you could go back in time and offer today’s conveniences, luxuries, and technology to someone and told them they could get things done faster, better, and more efficiently, do you think they’d deny you? Of course not.
If today, you opted to treat a leg injury in combat with a swig of bourbon and a hacksaw, then you’re a fool. The guy who had to go it that way back in the day had no choice.
I’m short on time, but I will just say that Pilgrim’s post summed it up pretty well describing his family members in a few words. They were all regular men (boys I guess they were) of their time, but when it came down to it, they were there for their fellow Marines/soldiers and there are the same men (boys again) that do the same on a daily basis now. Also take into account that they were thrown into an extraordinary circumstance, and despite all the romanticism of times past, you can bet that there were those who backed down (just as it is natural to do so) as there are those who do that today.
For Marines specifically, unless they stopped doing so in boot, part of making them the same is teaching the history of the Corps. I was told that we were the only service to do that. It’s not physical training, and it’s not practical training, but it is somehow an integral part.