Is when civilians with no military experience write about or direct stories like this and refer to Marines as "Soldiers." The ARMY has SOLDIERS. The MARINE CORPS has MARINES. The NAVY has SAILERS, the Air force has AIRMEN.
If you come along and remark that its all the same, your'e exactly the person I'm talking about.
Soldiers are part of a land based army whether enlisted, Non-comms or Officers. Soldiers can be a trooper, tanker, commando, dragoon, infantryman, marine, paratrooper, grenadier, ranger, sniper, engineer, sapper, signaller, medic, or a gunner.
I get that you're a proud Marine but 'Soldier' is not necessarily an incorrect or intended as an insulting term. The public you serve or served can use whatever terminology they want and shouldn't have to fall in line with terms of respect that different regiments of the armed forces like to use toward each other.
Also I'm not American and would never reveal any military service I'd taken part in especially not on the internet. No disrespect intended, I have a friend who's a marine, an American marine not a Royal Marine, so I do see where you're coming from, I just don't think it's wrong for someone to use the term soldier as a blanket term. It's my opinion.
You're simply wrong, and spoken exactly like the non-military serviced folks I speak of.
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Vondiesel, you are correct. The definition you post in response to "As a former Marine,....". To find the definition of the word soldier, people just have to look up the word soldier in any dictionary, including the Merriam Webster Dictionary, it basically says exactly what you wrote. In the Merriam Webster Dictionary it also says synonyms used for word soldier include what you wrote in your post, "trooper, tanker, commando, dragoon, infantryman, marine, paratrooper, grenadier, ranger, sniper, engineer, sapper, signaller, medic, or a gunner." These are what I call general terms and definitions. To look even further into the history and origin of the word soldier, example at thesaurus.com, people will see that the original use of the word soldier was, "one who serves in the army for pay". This thesaurus information on origin and history of the word soldier does make what the former marine posted partially correct - original use of the word - but we all know that over time word use evolves and many words, like soldier, become general blanket words. In this case, the word soldier became a general blanket word used to represent all enlisted military members.
We can also look at it from the Merriam Webster Dictionary definition of the word marine, which includes "one of a class of armed services personnel serving on shipboard or in close association with a naval force; example a member of the United States Marine Corps" Marine is "one class of armed services personnel". Armed services personnel are" Armed forces personnel are active duty military personnel, including paramilitary forces if the training, organization, equipment, and control suggest they may be used to support or replace regular military forces.
What this all means is, no matter what the origin of and history of the word Soldier is, a Marine is one class of armed services personnel, active duty military personnel, and can be used to also support and/or replace other soldiers, other classes of armed services personnel.
Ex-marine, original poster of comment, thank you for your brave service, for keeping us North Americans safe. My paternal grandfather served many years in the American Navy (RIP), and my maternal grandfather served many years in the Canadian artillery unit Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry division, who held down the hill in the Korean War. I come from a very military family, however, I am not military personnel. I'm sorry that the word Soldier seems to offend you and that people who use the word soldier to describe a marine offends you. But we are correctly using these words, no matter how much you don't like it. God speed Sir.
I'm with you. I served in the USAF and cringe whenever a member of the military is referred to as soldier as though all branches are interchangeable. At least on NCIS they try to use the correct vernacular.
And the poster down below who said something about "being land based"... Most people just assume Marines are land-based, not knowing (most likely, not really caring) that Marines are transported via the Navy while the Army is usually transported via the USAF.
And, not surprisingly, people on here who don't know the difference get verbally abusive to cover their own ignorance and try to make you the dumba$$ for pointng this out.
Hang tough, Marine. Semper Fi.
"Posters entering a discussion for the purpose of attacking the others are quickly ignored."
Spot on, Nancy.
shareWell soldier, guess I'm one of them. I also refer to state troopers, deputies and any other officer as the police, or as cops. Coming from someone who has no military (or law enforcement) experience, it is innocent ignorance rather than disrespect. Although yes, my use was poking the bear a bit.
share"Sailers"???
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