This floored me...definitely illustrates the difference in mentality.
In the Marine Corps many people feel that the infantryman is the main effort -and everyone who isn't is support.
Maybe in the Cold War Era it was different, but it strikes me that nowadays the boots on the ground are the main effort (I think Dora Farms is a good example).
What I think Huggy was pointing out is that we have hundreds of people protecting strategic assets, and that has included Marines too. Why do you think there was a Marine detachment assigned to CV/CVN's up until the early 90's? Our leadership has determined that some strategic assets, like SSBN's, ICBM's, B-2's, CVN's and others are valuable enough to place hundreds of people in harms way to protect them. In a nuke war, the infantryman ain't going to matter much.
Another example of the difference: I read a story about an Army Cavalry Squadron near Faysailiyah which came under attack. The commander ordered a danger close CAS mission from A-10s. He said a few minutes later there was a knock at the door to his humvee...the AF FAC (or whatever the equivalent acronym is) had gotten out of his vehicle and ran under fire to the commanders vehicle in order to get his name, rank, and SSN so that if the cas mission went south they would know who to blame it on.
Maybe I am wrong, but I can't imagine something like that happening in the Corps.
Everyone loves to point out examples like that, but unless you can point to some real proof of that I am going to call BS. There are plenty of flaws with the USAF, along with all of the services (don't get me started on the Marines, or the Navy), but spreading rumors doesn't help anyone.
I would also agree that everywhere I have been leadership is pushed down to the lowest levels. The "tell them what to do, not how to do it" idea.
That is a great idea, and I am all for it in most cases. But I sure don't want an E-4 deciding on when and how to employ a $2 billion plane, a $5 billion (one of 5) satellite, a $10 billion ship or a nuke. Things that Marines generally don't deal with, and part of the advantage of being the cheapest service.