Well CaptO, The last seven lines of your article kinda, in my view puts the Armydown a little.
Somehow I knew I would raise the hackles of people with this one! My intention is not to denigrate the army (past or present.) Indeed my interest in WWII is focused more on the European theater (where you could count the Marines on both hands and have fingers left over) than the Pacific. I bring that up because I have always been in awe of what the US did (which pretty much means the US Army) in that theater and of what my grandfather was a part. I obviously can't speak firsthand of what the army was at that time and don't think comparisons to today's army would be valid anyway. The way the army of 1942-45 was formed is completely different to what I have seen (in training and operationally) in that last 13+ years. I also will not say that my "experience" in combat has any influence on what I am talking about. My exposure to danger consisted of a few IED's that went off 20-30 yards away, some mortar impact about 75M away at the closest, and getting in a 45 minute shootout with some insurgents that were too far away to hit anything with AK-47's. That's hardly months of slogging it out with Fallschirmjager at Casino or Whermacht at Anzio.
With all that being said, what I wrote comes from my own observations of the US Army since 1995. There is a difference in bearing and demeanor with most army troops and Marines. As I pointed out, the soldiers in combat arms units are squared away; out of pride and necessity. Discipline and esprit saves lives. But that is the point I'm trying to make about the Marine Corps. We realize the benefits of those attributes and attempt to instill it in all Marines. One way we do that is to link the present generation with Jarhead knuckle-draggers that go back to the Revolution. I don't believe the army does this judging by the soldiers with whom I have come into contact. I don't understand this because the army has a great history. My final point is that if they were to stress their own history, I think the results would be evident to all.
I'm sorry for any slight readers here may have felt. Once again that is not my intention. I'm working a 0000-1200 shift all week for a communications exercise and I don't have a lot going on at about 0300. So I got on the computer, and began to write down some thoughts and you see how it ended up. Hopefully, I have been posting enough here that people know the great respect I have for not only you members of the Great Crusade, but also the United States Army in general.