Which is more highly trained and skilled fighters, Marines or Paratroopers?

Answer 1

Marines. Next question!

Answer 2

Having been in the Marines and the Army and having been Airborne in BOTH I believe I can answer this question better than most here. The Marines are designed to be a special force in and of itself. They are a DEPARTMENT of the Navy, not in the Navy. Because they are a special force they have no special forces. Force Recon, Air Delivery, and ANGLICO are simply other jobs a Marine can do if they qualify. All Marines are highly trained and can perform their jobs to a high degree of skill. The Paratroopers of the 82nd, 173rd, and 25th Airborne are just as highly skilled to do their jobs as well. They are also considered special forces too. The 82nd does hold a seperate distinction apart from any other force in the whole of the United States Military. They can have as many as 3000-4000 paratroopers on enemy ground anywhere in the world in 18 hours or less. That is a lot of highly trained warriors to move out in a short amount of time. The Marines can't do it quite that fast. All in all, I would say they are like apples and oranges, both are fruit, just two different kinds. And both are really, really good.

Answer 3

Paratroopers are a highly trained specialized unit of the Army. Marines are any recruit that made it through basic training. Therefore I'd say paratroopers, because you could be a cook or a secretary and still be called a marine.

Answer 4

Marines are not considered special forces. The answer would be Army Airborne troops. Airborne parachutes behind enemy lines to take and hold important real estate. This is not the job of the Marine Corp, the Marines are just basic infantry just like an Army 11 Bravo.

h h the Marines are not considered special forces, they have long range recon teams and other specialties. Airborne forces have always been considered special forces even through the recent wars in Iraq in Afghanistan. The Marines are not referred to as special forces.
And please provide some sort of proof that we are doing away with paratroopers being deployed behind enemy lines.
Paratroopers are shock troops, the benefit of having them is that you can deploy them behind the enemy quickly. Our latest military air jump was performed by the 82nd Airborne into Afghanistan as early as 2001/2002, which hardly indicates we are doing away with such a tactical maneuver.

Answer 5

Huckleberry1..

If the Marines are not considered special forces then why does its forward deployed Battalion Landing Teams report to Special Operations Command?

Paratroopers are trained to deploy by parachuting into an area and then conducting their combat operations. It simply means that they are trained to deploy that way. Due to technology this method of deployment is becoming obsolete since when you parachute into combat you lack any type of staying power or heavier weapons to realistically sustain combat operations. They are now coming up with, and have platforms to bring in men and material in much greater numbers with much heavier weapons.

Huckleberry1..
You mentioned that the Marines have "specialties." This is true, its specialty is Infantry and everything in the Marine Corps including Amphibious Reconnaissance, and Force Reconnaissance are designed around the Infantry. The Marines have tanks, designed to support Infantry operations, it has fighters and bombers, designed to support Infantry operations, everything in the Marine Corps combat-wise exists to this effect.

As far as parachuting becoming obsolete that has been a point of interest for the past 20 years. They can parachute the men, and maybe some medium weapons and thats it. Then there is the problem of having cargo planes able to get in range presumably from an airfield that is near enough. Then they have all the problems of securing the airspace for those planes. Then they have the problem of having a large amount of men with little ability to manuver other than their feet.

Basically what they are finding out is that using helo's is more effective. Hence the 101st airborne division is now the 101st air assault division. If you are in an airborne division like the 82nd I bet you do alot more fastrope training than actual jumps.

Now with more larger vertical takeoff capable platforms becoming available like the V-22 and similar aircraft on the drawing board the need for parachuting is starting to go the way of the do do.

Its not something to worry about, people used to deploy into combat on horses, now they dont its the nature of the military.

Airborne Infantry is not considered "special forces." They probley were in WW2 but not now. They are under regular Army command as an asset that is deployable via aircraft.

You mentioned that a Marine Infantryman is the same as an Army 11B, this I would say is totally inaccurate. The missions and objectives given to USMC infantry units do not reflect your belief in this.

You mentioned the term "shock troops" in relation to Airborne Infantry I would say that if that term is applicable at all it should be applied to the Marines.

The term "shock troops" itself is a term that was used by the Germans in WW1 to catagorize the highest level of Infantry units. When the Germans met the USMC in France and sufferred extremely heavy losses they immediately put the Marines into this catagory, hence the nickname Tuefelhunden or "devildog." Shock troops were used to spearhead assualts, and typically were a rapid response force that includes fanatically loyal, well trained infantry. I would say that description is accurate when describing the current US Marine Corps.

Answer 6

Army Airborne Infantry (paratroopers) all the way. There is a reason why more enemies have been killed at the hands of the Army Infantry than any other force. The Airborne are the most versitile of these!

Answer 7

well while army paratroopers are their own breed, not a common soldier, the marines also have their airborne troops as well called recon, which is a higher trained troop than just a paratrooper.

Answer 8

thats kinda vague. a marine is anyone in the marines. nothing special. paratroops are just infantrymen who went to airbnorne school which is only like 3 weeks also not that special. but if u compare one airborne infantryman in the marines to one airborne infantryman in the the army, just ask em where they went to airborne school. fort benning, a us army post. so i guess it takes the army to make a marine better...

Answer 9

Marines are, paras are in the ARMY, marines in Navy but if you look closely there is a marine in the ARMY just wanting to get out but never quite met the grade.

aRMy

Answer 10

The Delta Force.

Skilled in ALL weapons and have fought everywhere.