Interesting poll about people's impressions of the military. Marines, most prestigious....and, uh, Navy....LAST! 2% said Coast Guard, but in fairness, I think all those people are IN the Coast Guard. You all gotta get to the store and buy yourself some relevance.
Redo this poll by asking people that actually know about the roles of the various services versus protecting all our national interest including the economic ones. This is all based on uniformed public opinion due to the Marines & Army being the most vivible in the press right now. In the big scheme of things it's the military capability of the U.S. that is important, not the indivdual services. Also they seem to be using prestigious and important interchangably. Important = of great significant or consequence. Prestigious = esteemed One can be prestigious yet unimportant just as one can be important yet not prestigious. You would think prfessional wrtiers would have a better grip on volcabulary.
It sounds as if the survey asked two separate questions about prestige and importance. The article is unclear about that. The importance vs. prestige issue is a vital one, though. The Marine Corps is actually the least important of the 4 major services, but I think that most would say it's also the most prestigious.
After a decade of combat on TV, it's easy to understand this poll. The Navy's biggest problem has always been justifying its piece of the pie in GWOT. What the Navy does is important and we do things the other services don't, but to the general public the Navy's not in this fight, so the results are logical.
I'm not sure what the point of the poll was; the vast majority of the Great American Public has little to no understanding of what the services actually do, let alone how they relate to US policy.
Yeah, I can't remember the last time a poll of the American public caused me to reflect, "Gee, the average citizen of our country sure is well-informed."
I would agree with that and it can be in a large part attributed to The USMC has always cornered the market of self-promotion, which in turn builds a better self image among its members which translates to better public opinion.
You know, I'm partial to the USN, and I wouldn't want to serve in any other service (save maybe AF if I could snag a U-2 gig someday), but if I took the poll, I'd probably rate the Marines as the most prestigious. Just sayin....
It's not just the propaganda machine. Being regarded as more difficult goes a long way. The uniforms don't hurt either. Neither does the kicking ass part.
I don't think the propaganda machine is a bad thing. It works great for the Marines. The public wouldn't know the Marines were "more difficult" without it.
I've been in charge of Navy & Marine Corps Mortuary for 3 years and can say without a doubt that those guys deserve every ounce of respect they get because they are always in the fight. When the Army goes to the rear, the Marines (and our corpsmen) go forward. We bring an incredibly disproportinate number of those guys home in transfer cases or missing arms and legs. I could care less about the poll, I'm proud to be a teammate of everyone in it.
Except the general populace will think it's a movie about Air Force pilots who fly F/A-18s off of boats.
Someone should tell America that we are a god damned Global Force for MOTHER F'ing Good! Or we could come up with a slogan thats about 1/10th as gay.... either way, shit needs to change.
If the question was, "Which branch of the military is most vital to keeping those low, low Walmart prices you love?" then the Navy wins, hands down .
How is the Air Force so damn high then in terms of relevancy in GWOT? Regardless of what they do or do not do - what does the general populace think they do in theater? If I'm John Q. Civilian, I would have to suspect that they mostly operate drones based on TV coverage. I'm curious to know what civilians think they actually do vs. what the Navy does.
As others have said, the general populus thinks the Airforce are the ones flying off the carriers and SEALs are a kind of Marine. Tomahawks are steered by the Airforce, too! And thanks to Hollywood, US Battleships are in service and when is the last time we sunk another enemy Battleship? Pfft! Useless Navy. What other gems have I heard?
