Why your work is "Military"

LineInTheSand

USCGA 2006
10-Year Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
9,295
Whether it be Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard; what makes your service "military". Beyond law and statute, what makes you say your service "military". It's generally accepted by the public, but how do YOU define it?
 
"The United States Army’s mission is to fight and win our nation’s wars by providing prompt, sustained land dominance across the full range of military operations and spectrum of conflict in support of combatant commanders."
 
The mission of the US Navy is "to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas."
 
The U.S. Coast Guard's mission is to protect the public, the environment, and U.S. economic interests — in the nation's ports and waterways, along the coast, on international waters, or in any maritime region as required to support national security.
 
Well, anything that consists of a large number of physically fit people clothed in the same uniform, distinguished by ranks, armed, employed by the government, and with the objective to defend American interests by killing/maiming/obstructing the enemy, then its the military
 
The mission of the United States Air Force is to fly, fight and win...in air, space and cyberspace.

To add, I'll put the mission of the 91 MW, where I served on AD. "To defend the United States with safe, secure ICBMs, ready to immediately put bombs on target. Our standard is excellence."
 
Yo LITS: I gotta dog you brother. After that whole "President overlooks the coast guard" thread.

You DIDN'T MENTION the Merchant Marines in your thread.

DOH!!!!!

:welcome:
 
Merchant Marine isn't military, unless we're talking Navy Reserve. I also didn't mention USPHS or NOAA.
 
And I believe they are called Merchant Mariners, not Merchant Marines.
 
The mission of the United States Air Force is to fly, fight and win...in air, space and cyberspace.

To add, I'll put the mission of the 91 MW, where I served on AD. "To defend the United States with safe, secure ICBMs, ready to immediately put bombs on target. Our standard is excellence."

With the exception of cyberspace (which the Air Force is still "discovering itself" in) how does this differ from Navy aviation?



The purpose of the thread....defend what you do, and explain why your service is important. I sat in on a talk by an AF O-6, who said she was constantly justifying the existance of the Air Force. I didn't realize that was an issue.

Think we need a Marine Corps? Why? Why can't the Army do those jobs? Why do we need an Army if the Marine Corps can kill just as well, especially if given the same funding and manpower.

Why have a Navy if naval battles are over?

Why have a Coast Guard if you already maintain a Navy?

Why have an Air Force is cyberspace is covered by the NSA and the air can be covered by the Navy?

Yes, all wear uniforms, and carry guns. So do cops, what makes you any different?
 

Excellent point LITS! :thumb:

I am seriously interested in reading this topic, but I would prefer if people not make snide remarks or try to start an argument by bashing other branches...we all serve under one flag and one country. We all work together to carry out a mission. After all, don't we all swear the same oath, "to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, against all enemies foreign and domestic."

The questions is: what strengths does each branch have that helps carry out that mission? Why are we the military?

I think we can all agree that the military is there to protect and defend our great country and its people to the best of its ability.

For me, the Coast Guard accomplishes this in a very unique way. The Coast Guard is the only truly humanitarian branch of the military. The missions of our service are purely to help, and not to hurt unless absolutely necessary. Our mission is to save lives, protect the environment, and homeland security through drug interdiction and defense readiness. We have the power to make arrests on the water, an ability none of the other branches have. We are often made fun of for being a small service and not truly "military" but we do a damn good job with a lot less money and a lot less people than the other branches. How are we different from cops? We protect the entire country with less personnel than the New York Police Department.

Events like Hurricane Katrina and Deep Water Horizon, we were there, making sure that the mission was carried out. We protect those at home so the other branches can make sure we are protected on the international front.
 
Excellent point LITS! :thumb:

I am seriously interested in reading this topic, but I would prefer if people not make snide remarks or try to start an argument by bashing other branches...we all serve under one flag and one country. We all work together to carry out a mission. After all, don't we all swear the same oath, "to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, against all enemies foreign and domestic."

The questions is: what strengths does each branch have that helps carry out that mission? Why are we the military?

I think we can all agree that the military is there to protect and defend our great country and its people to the best of its ability.

For me, the Coast Guard accomplishes this in a very unique way. The Coast Guard is the only truly humanitarian branch of the military. The missions of our service are purely to help, and not to hurt unless absolutely necessary. Our mission is to save lives, protect the environment, and homeland security through drug interdiction and defense readiness. We have the power to make arrests on the water, an ability none of the other branches have. We are often made fun of for being a small service and not truly "military" but we do a damn good job with a lot less money and a lot less people than the other branches. How are we different from cops? We protect the entire country with less personnel than the New York Police Department.

Events like Hurricane Katrina and Deep Water Horizon, we were there, making sure that the mission was carried out. We protect those at home so the other branches can make sure we are protected on the international front.

Well said! :thumb:

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 


As one who aspires to be an MP in the future, I would say that the difference is that MPs are "of the soldiers for the soliders". The job of the MP is to be "technically proficient in policing activities, corrections/detention operations, police/criminal intelligence operations as well as tactically proficient in combat support operations, area security, stability and civil support operations. The MP Corps is fully nested within the Brigade Combat Team centric Army concept and serves as the most demanded enabler for maneuver commanders as they execute major combat operations, stability operations, COIN, contingency operations, civil support, as well as consequence management in the homeland."

The main difference is that they conduct operations in the military, which has a separate code of law (UCMJ).
 
Excellent point LITS! :thumb:

I am seriously interested in reading this topic, but I would prefer if people not make snide remarks or try to start an argument by bashing other branches...we all serve under one flag and one country. We all work together to carry out a mission. After all, don't we all swear the same oath, "to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, against all enemies foreign and domestic."

The questions is: what strengths does each branch have that helps carry out that mission? Why are we the military?

I think we can all agree that the military is there to protect and defend our great country and its people to the best of its ability.

For me, the Coast Guard accomplishes this in a very unique way. The Coast Guard is the only truly humanitarian branch of the military. The missions of our service are purely to help, and not to hurt unless absolutely necessary. Our mission is to save lives, protect the environment, and homeland security through drug interdiction and defense readiness. We have the power to make arrests on the water, an ability none of the other branches have. We are often made fun of for being a small service and not truly "military" but we do a damn good job with a lot less money and a lot less people than the other branches. How are we different from cops? We protect the entire country with less personnel than the New York Police Department.

Events like Hurricane Katrina and Deep Water Horizon, we were there, making sure that the mission was carried out. We protect those at home so the other branches can make sure we are protected on the international front.

Great post Track! :thumb:

Perhaps the core of being in the military is the Oath to "Support and defend the Constitution" that everyone takes. With that oath, people are offering to give their lives to protect others.

We don't need to make this into a thread about branch bashing. There are clearly things that one branch does better than another, and all have different duties and responsibilities.
 
The Air Force is NOT limited to planes, and in MANY aspects has a unique from naval aviation. Many jobs are cyberspace, or relating to outer space, which naval aviation doesn’t do, nor do other brances do (as much as Air Force). Also CCTs, PJs, CROs are very important and definitely “military”. PJs were a major force in Vietnam, rescuing downed pilots, and other rescue missions.
 
As one who aspires to be an MP in the future, I would say that the difference is that MPs are "of the soldiers for the soliders". The job of the MP is to be "technically proficient in policing activities, corrections/detention operations, police/criminal intelligence operations as well as tactically proficient in combat support operations, area security, stability and civil support operations. The MP Corps is fully nested within the Brigade Combat Team centric Army concept and serves as the most demanded enabler for maneuver commanders as they execute major combat operations, stability operations, COIN, contingency operations, civil support, as well as consequence management in the homeland."

The main difference is that they conduct operations in the military, which has a separate code of law (UCMJ).



I'm still not seeing a difference here....both adhere to UCMJ. A fairly common cited difference, the U.S. Coast Guard is not constrained by posse comitatus.
 
With the exception of cyberspace (which the Air Force is still "discovering itself" in) how does this differ from Navy aviation?



The purpose of the thread....defend what you do, and explain why your service is important. I sat in on a talk by an AF O-6, who said she was constantly justifying the existance of the Air Force. I didn't realize that was an issue.

Think we need a Marine Corps? Why? Why can't the Army do those jobs? Why do we need an Army if the Marine Corps can kill just as well, especially if given the same funding and manpower.

Why have a Navy if naval battles are over?

Why have a Coast Guard if you already maintain a Navy?

Why have an Air Force is cyberspace is covered by the NSA and the air can be covered by the Navy?

Yes, all wear uniforms, and carry guns. So do cops, what makes you any different?

You're basically asking the question - why have a military at all? Our country plays a large part on the global stage (and I hope continues to play) and its critical that our military is second to none. I've never had second thoughts about our enormous defense spending nor the existence of our Navy and Air Force. I admit I've wondered what we need the Marines and USCG/USMM for. Simply because we haven't had a major air-to-air engagement since Vietnam and a major sea-to-sea engagement since WWII does not mean that the AF and the Navy are somehow useless. How do you know this won't be the case in this century or beyond?

Police officers work on a domestic scale, aren't employed by the federal government, nor are they responsible for protecting our national interests on a national or global scale. They are not responsible for the destruction of the enemies of the STATE. Maybe they're responsible for dealing with the guy who holds up a bank. Stopping crime. But thats not the same thing.
 
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You're basically asking the question - why have a military at all? Our country plays a large part on the global stage (and I hope continues to play) and its critical that our military is second to none. I've never had second thoughts about our enormous defense spending nor the existence of our Navy and Air Force. I admit I've wondered what we need the Marines and USCG/USMM for. Simply because we haven't had a major air-to-air engagement since Vietnam and a major sea-to-sea engagement since WWII does not mean that the AF and the Navy are somehow useless. How do you know this won't be the case in this century or beyond?

Police officers work on a domestic scale, aren't employed by the federal government, nor are they responsible for protecting our national interests on a national or global scale. They are not responsible for the destruction of the enemies of the STATE. Maybe they're responsible for dealing with the guy who holds up a bank. Stopping crime. But thats not the same thing.

Right. Many people, as have already done, spout off the mission of their service or core values....same ole same ole. Reason for this....dig deeper.

Do we need a U.S. Marine Corps? Once we get through the oorah'ness of it all, why not have one land force, one sea and one air? Why have a district AF? With the exception of heavy lifters, bombers and tankers, what can an Air Force plane do that a Navy plane can't?

Why is the Navy investing so much in LCSs? Haven't we already seen in WWII that naval aviation is greater than any battle ship? What's a frigate do usually?

As people rattled off their branches reasons of being....it seemed to me MOST of them could have interchangeable service names in there.

Is that starting to make sense?

Why have a Coast Guard? That's a fine question to ask, especially if you're only looking at the military side of the coin. On the domestic side, the Coast Guard inspects ships, maintains all aids to navigation, runs dGPS, and of course provides port security, alien migrant interdiction, drug interdiction, and search and rescue. Not to mention, the Coast Guard has ice breakers.

Now, why military? A Coast Guardsmen will be the first to tell you that we're small, and so is our equipment. Coasties are expert small boat handlers. Better than any service. They are also very good at at sea boardings. Finally the Coast Guard is proficient in port security ops. Most of the navies in the world are far more similiar to the U.S. Coast Guard than the U.S. Navy. Because of the domestic missions, it also sometimes helps some countries feel a little more comfortable interacting with us. Finally, the Coast Guard is used to not only speaking "military" but also with civilian counterparts, something you soon come to find some branches struggle with from time to time. Why have a Merchant Marine? Well, most of the stuff used in a war isn't flown in. It's shipped.

Are there aspects of the Coast Guard that aren't very "military"? Sure. Small boat stations tend to be very domestic and LE-focused. That's largely because that's how U.S. Life Saving stations were created over a century ago. I know the average American would feel uncomfortable having Navy sailors pull them over to issue a ticket (of course, they can't do that though). Aids to navigation is the same way. Search and rescue would resemble any service SAR capabilities. I would say some of the large Coast Guard cutters are very much like their Navy sisters. There's little difference between a Navy frigate and a Coast Guard 378'. A lot of overlap between a Coast Guard NSC and a Navy LCS.

We, in the Coast Guard, are comfortable with our service, but sometimes have trouble explaining it to our sister services. I sometimes find it amazing that some services, like the Air Force, would have so much to say, but forget that they're 150 years younger than the Coast Guard. Or I'm surprised when a Marine says something, as apparently they forgot about the Coast Guardsmen who gave their lives protecting beached Marines in the Pacific in WWII. Certainly assume sailors who have something to say have never gone on a boarding at sea or worked with a LEDET. There's little interaction with Army, beyond their very limited transportation branch and their tugs (and I guess the RAID teams in Afghanistan and the PSUs in the NAG).
 
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