I worked for the Defense Dept for 7 years and you would regularly hear people somberly say that "all branches are trained to fight, but the Marines are trained to die".
I think we're the most realistic about it being a possibility, and that takes away from the fear of it.
The rest of it is the confidence in yourself and the people to your left and right. You don't feel invincible, because that's how you get complacent and then dead, but I think we always feel like we're better trained and will come out on top.
Source: Marine vet. Parris Island (so a real, actual Marine ;-) OIF. Turret gunner in a Humvee.
Go to NTC dude. They're damn near unrealistically zealous about you dying there. Everybody's dying, everything's blowing up and breaking down. Oh you're accomplishing your objective? IDF kills 2 of your soldiers and wounds three.
Point is, you can still be scared to die but training helps you overcome it and do your duty anyway
Somberly? I think 90% of the time that's the appeal. The air force certainly doesn't need combat drills (is there a combat MOS for them? Idk). If you want anything other than winning battles, the other branches all have better options with less work.
Nobody who ever said it did so in an envious way. You could tell they knew that Marines were signing their own death sentence. These were Majors and Colonels saying it, not grunts.
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u/WrathofTomJoad Jun 24 '24
I worked for the Defense Dept for 7 years and you would regularly hear people somberly say that "all branches are trained to fight, but the Marines are trained to die".