USMC and Navy

Factual Questions
21

Uh, sorry, but also wrong. You do need to capitalize Sailor. I don’t have any cite for proof, but I very clearly remember it coming out in the Plan of the Day, between 5-10 years ago, when I was in the Navy. It came from CNO and everything. I guess we had capitalization envy.

Oh, and sirkle? About the exact relationship between Navy and Marine Corps? Rich G7subs had it about right. They’re gonna expect you to do the dirty work for them. They’re going to snicker at you for being dumb grunts. There will be a lot of rivalry. And if you do end up guarding the nukes, virtually all of them are going to be getting paid more than you. But maybe, just maybe, if you’re lucky, the day will come when - during a drill or something - one of them won’t get out of the way in time and you’ll be fully justified in making him or her integrate very rapidly with the paint or pavement. And you’ll smile a little smile as you move on to the real objective. :smiley:

Best of luck.

22

BGH –

As an active duty sailor (and a Navy public affairs specialist), I must correct you.

True, the CNO (Admiral Mike Boorda) issued a directive that the word “sailor” must be capitalized in Naval publications, instructions, notices and other printed matter. But the CNO’s authority goes only so far!

The bibles which nearly every American civilian journalist adheres to are Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style (Second Edition, Macmillan and Co., 1972) and The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual (Adison-Wesley, 1998). The former is a “must” reference for grammatical and style issues and the later for capitalization, punctuation and the like. There is some bleed over between the volumes, though.

A.P. Styleguide Page 124 –
Marines Capitalize when referring to U.S. forces: the U.S. Marines, the Marines, the Marine Corps, Marine regulations. Do not use the abbreviation USMC.
Capitalize Marine when referring to an individual in a Marine Corps unit: He is a Marine.

There are no entries for sailor, airman or soldier. Hence they are not capitalized.

Also civilians abbreviate military ranks differently than what you are probably used to, BGH. LCDR for the Navy and Lt. Cmdr. for civilians (military titles entry, Page 130, A.P. Styleguide).

In the Navy, for an internal publication we would capitalize “Sailor,” but for an external press release we would use “sailor.”

So, in summation, for the majority of the English speaking world, BGH, you are wrong.

23

Good luck to you Sirkle. I tried to enlist in what, if I remember right, was called a platoon leaders program way back about 1969 or 70. I didn’t get past the physical - something about “…minimum standards…” It was going to pay about $2000 a year - a nice, used GTO back then.

I don’t know about capitilizing Sailor or Soldier, but Bradley points out something else in “Flags of our Fathers” - in the Navy you have sailors, in the Army soldiers, but the Marines have Marines - there is no other way to describe them.

One of my friends (who talked me into the platoon leader thing) joined the Marines straight out of high school. He said he had no problem with boot camp - but he had spent the previous 12 years in Catholic schools run by the Christian Brothers.

Make sure that no one sends you anything other than an innocuous letter in boot camp - my friends say that the sargeants really don’t like you getting anything, and you might want to stay on their good side.

24

This might be dangerous knowledge, but my cousin, a former officer in the Marines, tells me that while verbal harassment is acceptable and even encouraged in boot camp, a trainee cannot (officially) be physically harmed or intimidated.

Point this out to your instructor at your peril, for their options are still wide and Godlike. But if something gets really out of control, remember that you do have some basic rights, even in boot camp.

You might want to learn everything you can about Chesty Puller, a genuine died-in-the-wool badass. But if you learn a lot, don’t volunteer information and whatever you do, don’t dismiss the “walking down the middle of the street in his underwear pointing out the snipers” story as apocryphal.