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Apr. 5th, 2005 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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doonesbury, Alex is pondering signing up for the Army, and people are caterwauling about the possibility of her being sent to Iraq (though she hasn't signed anything yet). It reminds me of something I've been wondering lately: what's the makeup of the current American forces serving there? From following the news, I have gotten the impression that the USMC has the largest presence there by far. It seems to me that "soldier" and "marine" are used interchangably in news reports (all too often about something terrible happening to one or more of them).
Unless the stories are actually being quite precise, and "soldier" in .mil context specifically means "an active member of the Army, not to be confused with a marine, a sailor, or an airman". Which I'd be fascinated to learn was true, being something I hadn't considered until just now.
doonesbury, Alex is pondering signing up for the Army, and people are caterwauling about the possibility of her being sent to Iraq (though she hasn't signed anything yet). It reminds me of something I've been wondering lately: what's the makeup of the current American forces serving there? From following the news, I have gotten the impression that the USMC has the largest presence there by far. It seems to me that "soldier" and "marine" are used interchangably in news reports (all too often about something terrible happening to one or more of them).Unless the stories are actually being quite precise, and "soldier" in .mil context specifically means "an active member of the Army, not to be confused with a marine, a sailor, or an airman". Which I'd be fascinated to learn was true, being something I hadn't considered until just now.