Hey, everyone. After recently reading about the Marine Corps, I am extremely impressed with everything you all do, and know how to do. I did not realize that you are all trained in air, land and sea combat in addition to thousands of other things I'm sure. I don't know if I will ever have the courage to join you, or even the military for that matter, but it is on my mind. I am 23. My question is, why is the slogan of the marines "The Few" when they say "The Few. The Proud. The Marines." Do many people choose not to join the marines because they are physically incapable? Does the training process usually weed people out? Do a lot of people try out for the marines and get rejected? Do the marines keep a limit on how many people are allowed? As you can tell, I don't know anything about this. :-)
It's the smallest branch of the military. It is considered the most difficult training for recruits to overcome to earn the title. We are proud simply because we are Marines... It is not for everyone. There has to be a total commitment. Once you are a Marine, you have brothers and sisters........until you die.
We remember our dead and honor and care for our wounded.
I'm sure there are others who can say this better than I...
Thanks a lot for your response, GT6238. To get into the Marines, do you already have to have experience in another branch of the military? Can you do the training process if you have never had any military experience in the past?
I went right after high school! No previous Armed Forces experience! I remember when the Marines had 250,000 service members and the other services had 500,000 to 800,000. The Few! The Marines are unique. Join and feel the difference you will make!
Each service has a limit to the total number of people based on their respective role in national defense. As GT wrote above we're the smallest and hardest to join because of our wide variety of mission capabilities.
Our preliminary training is designed to weed out a full 1/3 of all recruits within the the first six weeks which is a serious stress test designed to see how individuals react under constant pressure. Another 10% are dropped for medical reasons which really means their spirit is more than capable but their bodies just can't meet the demanding pace required for combat.
We're a pretty close knit family based on common shared experiences due to our lack of adequate Congressional funding so our unoffical motto is "make do with what you have." This also ties into our reverence for tradition, service and sacrifice to our Brothers and Sisters becaused our respective units mean everything to us.
To Marines, service to others is everything while the benefits and perks of military service are merely things we use after we get out. Anyone who joins for those are the ones who are cut the first six weeks because their eyes are on themselves instead of helping their fellow recruits graduate boot camp.
The best way to understand who we are is really very simple. The extreme vast majority of us enlist in the Corps to simply earn the Title and be put to great challenge along with other people who consider themselves the best at what we do. Anything less isn't considered Marine so it means nothing to us even though we openly say we like the "skate" (soft jobs).
On the Techincal side, A Corps can only have 190.000 or less Marines. The Marine Corps has active duty billits for 188.000, reserves do not count into this number. Thus, it makes us a Corps.
Originally posted by GT6238: It's the smallest branch of the military. It is considered the most difficult training for recruits to overcome to earn the title. We are proud simply because we are Marines... It is not for everyone. There has to be a total commitment. Once you are a Marine, you have brothers and sisters........until you die.
We remember our dead and honor and care for our wounded.
I'm sure there are others who can say this better than I...
I tend to like the way you said that GT.
We have Brother's and Sister's for life. Then we go to be with them when we die. Marines don't play well with others so we stick together, even in death.
The former Pres. of the MCL (Hellen Hicks) used to babysit me when I was a child. I now call her Sis, she says it's wierd.
