Talk:United States Marine Corps/Part of the Navy discussion

Summary

There was a disagreement about whether the United States Marine Corps was part of the United States Navy. It is not; it is part of the United States Department of the Navy.

Original discussion

Someone keeps on changing this page and adding incorrect information. The United States Marine Corps is part of the NAVY even if you don't like that fact. We go to the same flight schools, the same service academy, we have the same regulations (for the most part) and we have the same medical structure. We have the same relief societies and we have pretty much everything combined. We are part of the Navy, so stop saying we're not. Oh, and finally, take a good look at our Seal, do you notice that it says: "DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY, UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS" (http://hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil/HD/Historical/Customes_Traditions/Emblem_Seal.htm) instead of "DEPARTMENT OF THE MARINE CORPS, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA." THE MARINES ARE PART OF THE NAVY. Stop changing this article to reflect your opinion. --RCK

My reverting your change had nothing to do with my "opinion" on the matter — I inherently lack one — and everything to do with how the edit was done. An IP who had already DELETED an entire paragraph from the Cold War article with no explanation whatsoever contradicted what had been written by known users and a quick search of a few websites turned up no evidence one way or another.

You'll find that most people are suspicious of edits by anonymous IPs as Wikipedia has a history of dealing with vandals and POV-mongers. It doesn't help when that same IP has just made severely questionable edits to another article with no explanation and then contradicts — also with no explanation — what had already been written in the article. If you want to avoid this in the future, two suggestions:

• Register or — if you already have a username — log in.
• At a minimum, put something sensible in the "Summary" box. When making edits that may appear controversial, leave a note in the talk page with supporting evidence.

If you do just one of these things, I — for one — will certainly hesitate to revert an edit. Especially one on a subject I know little about. -- nknight 01:15 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

The Marines are part of the DEPARTMENT of the Navy. The Department of the Navy is NOT the same thing as the US Navy. Both the US Navy and the US Marine Corps are under that Department, so one is not part of the other. See US Navy organization law (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=browse_usc&docid=Cite:+10USC5062) and US Marine Corps organization law (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=browse_usc&docid=Cite:+10USC5063). These specify that BOTH the US Navy and US Marine Corps are subordinate to the Department of the Navy (similar to how the US Army is subordinate to the Department of the Army and the US Air Force is subordinate to the Department of the Air Force). Nowhere in the law is the US Marine Corps subordinate to or part of the US Navy. Even without that technical distinction, the US Marine Corps is not part of the US Navy in common thought or in practice.

This should not evolve into a flame or edit war, because I have included the fact that the Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy (thus preserving the inferred intent of RCK in being factually correct) in the main article. -- Olathe November 23, 2003

The Marines are formally part of the Navy, right? If so, this article should say that. -- SJK

Done --the Epopt

Reverted with added details (see above for reasoning) -- Olathe November 23, 2003