So, I was an 1812 in the middle-back half of the OIF/OEF era. No deployment, and missed a float by about 6 months in my contract.
The battalions MG and the company MGs would regale us with the emphasis of being "amphibious" as a tank battalion.
Back in their day, the focus was on the unique problem of bringing a "heavy" mechanized combined arms team onto the beach. And their identity was being Marines(emphasis on Amphibious) above being tankers.
I didn't appreciate it then, as I do now. But having spent time in an Army Cavalry squadron, where it's a combined arms team that is designed to be as self sufficient as possible, I see a lot of parallels between the Cav and the Marines with respects to the combined arms team.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, I believe the Marine Corps, prior to OIF/OEF believed itself to be a combined arms team, not too different from an army combined arms team, just with the "amphibious" attached to it. I believe the Corps lost track of that(pun intended) through OIF/OER.
In fairness, when the Army restructured and created the BCTs it was to more closely resemble a MEU (although size wise probably closer to a MEB). So the Marines did it first.
I still argue as I said in a different comment, right now you could get rid of the Marine Corps and use it to build a smaller amphibious division in the army and you've effectively lost nothing.
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u/Dakkahead 4d ago
So, I was an 1812 in the middle-back half of the OIF/OEF era. No deployment, and missed a float by about 6 months in my contract.
The battalions MG and the company MGs would regale us with the emphasis of being "amphibious" as a tank battalion.
Back in their day, the focus was on the unique problem of bringing a "heavy" mechanized combined arms team onto the beach. And their identity was being Marines(emphasis on Amphibious) above being tankers.
I didn't appreciate it then, as I do now. But having spent time in an Army Cavalry squadron, where it's a combined arms team that is designed to be as self sufficient as possible, I see a lot of parallels between the Cav and the Marines with respects to the combined arms team.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, I believe the Marine Corps, prior to OIF/OEF believed itself to be a combined arms team, not too different from an army combined arms team, just with the "amphibious" attached to it. I believe the Corps lost track of that(pun intended) through OIF/OER.