User blog comment:Greenberet69/Alex Mason vs Henry Blackburn/@comment-3127606-20120123220340/@comment-1728211-20120125085110

I don't want to start a debate here, because I'm not American and haven't got a leg to stand on, but while you may presently regard marines as soldiers, they were initially established as a separate force from both the army and navy. In the early nineteenth century, most countries had a force equivalent to the marines whose tasks including boarding enemy ships and performing raids in order to free up sailors for vital work on the ship itself.