I have never served in the military, but as I understand it, the stereotypes of the U.S. military branches are as follows:
**Air Force **= Chair Force, the least rigorous PT, the most office-like and nerdy, comfortable facilities, very bureaucratic, thinking of reasons why something can’t be done rather than why it can be done (I imagine the Israeli Air Force is *not *like this.)
Navy = unhygienic squids, undisciplined, not very tidy
Army + Marines = the grunts of the military, the toughest PT, but not very smart (“MARINE” acronym = “muscles are required, intelligence not expected”)
Is it more or less like this in the military of any country that has all 3 of the branches above?
…and apparently the Coast Guard is nonexistent? Oh, and I understand the jarheads would be mightily offended to be put together with the Army.
I haven’t spent enough time in conversation with actual military personnel to know their big-service jokes, but Spain has different views of different branches and services both civil and military (the distinction doesn’t always happen at the same levels as for the American services):
National Police have a reputation with the general populace of being about as nice as a hemorroid and having a tendency to view the rest of us as bait. Exception made for the ones in Documentation, who have more patience than a NICU nurse (they issue passports and ID for both nationals and immigrants).
Guardia Civil are so polite, even when they’re telling you to fuck off they do so politely.
most people who don’t live in their regions can barely remember the four regional police bodies exist.
the job of local police is mainly in the realms of giving directions, providing citizen assistance, breaking fights and waiting for the Big Boys to arrive.
Air Force are those people who joined because they really, really, really like planes. Pity the budget for fuel tends to be on the low side.
paras are nuts.
Legión aren’t nuts, they use their nuts to think and do you have a problem with that? And don’t you dare say anything against the goat (having a goat as their mascot already tells you a lot about them; where in English we say someone is nuts, in Spanish we say they’re “(as crazy) as a goat”). Their founder didn’t quite get to the level of being a half-man, but almost, having lost an arm and an eye in prior military action.
Navy are pretty quiet as a body. Those deployed spend a lot of time wishing they were on land. Heroes of old include Blas de Lezo, called half-man as he was missing one eye, one arm and a leg and still more effective than most whole men. Heroes of more recent times include several smallish ships which are very effective at “traffic control” (previously called blockades).
artillery’s guns are bigger than yours nyah nyah. Other than that they’re regular army guys.
and the rest is those guys in green camo.
Most civilians don’t know this, having never worried about it, but within any of the three branches most NCOs and COs can be moved around: that means a Sarge may have started out as a private in artillery, been shuffled over to cavalry when he made E-3 and then to logistics as an E-4. All three are within the Army.
Reading the article cited as source for that claim, I see what the problem might be. The figure of Blas de Lezo itself, in bronze, is 3.5 m tall (11 feet 6 inches). However, the article mentions a “statue” 7 m tall (23 feet). Reading other sources it becomes clear that those 7 m include the height of the pedestal, which is also 3.5 m tall and made in solid granite.
I have no problem believing that a 7 m combination of bronze statue and solid granite pedestal, each 3.5 m tall, could weigh 35 tons.
Air Force - They get the best uniforms and the best toys, but the vast majority are firmly on the ground. If you want to be in the military but don’t want to crawl about in mud, or share a room with a dozen other men, the RAF is the place to be.
Royal Navy - They get the most expensive toys and those who are actually at sea (not too many ships these days) get "to see the world). Officers do okay but ordinary sailors learn to live pretty close to their mates. Even more so in subs.
Army - Such a huge variety here. If you want a fancy uniform and to ride a big horse in front of admiring crowds, you can join a Guards Regiment. Cavalry units drive fast things with tracks these days, but tend to get sent off to shitholes like Afghanistan. The SAS are the top if you like the physical and mental challenges, but the dropout rate is (understandably) high.
Aussie here - An uncle of mine who had a lengthy career in the service partly talked me out of joining the army after I left school, describing it as having a destructive culture of drinking and other peer related pressures. His army was in the 70’s/80’s though so for all I know everybody had a drinking problem then. This is a small regret of mine - I should have at least tested the PR people and seen for myself if todays military is in a better educated place than it was before, something I want to believe in but have no evidence for.
My time in the Army is two+ decades “behind the times,” but IME:
Marines: tend to rely on brute-force approaches to tactical problems, like beating their face against a brick wall until something gives (usually the face), and then calling up more Marines to “rinse, repeat.” Tend to think that they’re 10-foot-tall-and-bulletproof. They’re not.
Navy: never had much experience with them.
Air Force: the “drivers” I met were actually pretty cool; other officers/NCOs tended to look down their noses at us “dirt grubbers;” enlisted thought that their shit didn’t stink. ETA: Army Aviation was about the same.
Let’s have a look at a photo of the statue in question… Link follows:
The density of marble is about 2700 kg/m^3. Bronze is roughly 2.5 times denser (approx. 8500 kg/m^3). The granite base of the statue of Blas de Lezo can be approximated by a rectangular prism 3.5m x 1.5m x 1.5m in dimensions. Granite has a density of 2750 kg/m^3.
The granite base itself will weigh:
3.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 = 7.875 m^3 x 2750 kg/m^3 = 21656.25 kg
The bronze statue itself can be approximated by another rectangular prism 3.5m x 1m x 0.5m. Its weight (assuming it is solid bronze, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t be) would be:
3.5 x 1 x 0.5 = 1.75 m^3 x 8500 kg/m^3 = 14875 kg
The total weight of statue + pedestal, according to my estimations, would be:
21656.25 + 148750 = 36531.25 kg
So, a reported weight of 35 tons for the whole thing would not be particularly off the mark, in my opinion.
