Introduction: US Army Infantry vs US Marine Infantry
The US Army Infantry and the US Marine Corps Infantry are two of the most skilled and equipped infantries in the entire world.
- What sets them apart?
- What do they have in common?
- What can they do?
Let’s take a dive into what you need to know about Army infantry and Marine infantry.
We’ll start this post with a brief introduction to both entities. Let’s kick it off with the Army Infantry.
US Marine Infantry: Overview
The Army Infantry is the ground force and backbone of the army. From airborne, to Rangers, to Pathfinders, to air assault, this infantry is not only diverse but very big as well.
The army is more than twice the size of the Marine Corps, and this shows. They have state-of-the-art equipment, ranging from:
- Tanks
- Armed personnel carriers
- Infantry fighting vehicles
Moreover, they benefit from a lot of funding.
US Marine Infantry: Overview
The Marine Infantry is the Department of the Navy’s fighting ground force, but not only do they attack by ground, they also attack by air and sea.
Highly trained and professional, they do more with less. It is known that the Marine Corps is small and their funding isn’t the best, yet the Marine Infantry maintains its proficiency in battle.
From scout snipers to recon Marines, the Marine Infantry is also diverse and a force to be reckoned with.
Table 1: Brief Introduction – US Army Infantry vs US Marine Infantry
| US Army Infantry | US Marine Infantry | |
|---|---|---|
| Role | High-tech equipment and relies on air, ground, and sea for the attack. | Department of the Navy’s fighting ground force. |
| Size | More than twice the size of the Marine Corps. | Small, yet proficient in battle. |
| Equipment | Ground force and the backbone of the army. | High-tech equipment relies on air, ground, and sea for the attack. |
| Funding | Significant funding. | Less funding as compared to the Army. |
| Diversity | From airborne, Rangers, to pathfinders, to air assault. | From scout snipers to recon Marines. |
Capabilities, Missions, and Opportunities
All right, you just got a brief introduction to both of these elite infantries. Let’s dig a little deeper and go over their capabilities, missions, and opportunities.
Capabilities, Missions, and Opportunities
As we just said, the army infantry has a lot of soldiers, equipment, and funding. It is much bigger than the Marine Infantry. So while there will be a lot of overlap in how things are done, there will be some key differences here.
- Responsibilities: For starters, you’ll have a lot more responsibility at a lower rank in the Marine Infantry as compared to the Army Infantry. Due to the Marine Corps culture and size, Marines typically take on bigger roles and positions at a lower rank as compared to their army counterparts.
- Long-term engagements: The Army Infantry is better equipped for long term engagements due to its being more of an occupational force. While the Marine Infantry is a striking assault force, the army is better equipped for sustained combat.
Comparative Analysis
Let’s compare the two in a hypothetical scenario: The Marine Infantry could attack an enemy’s base and get them to fall back, and the US Army Infantry would take over and occupy that same base. At the same time, the Marine Infantry moves on to the next area to take over.
There are a lot more complexities involved in that scenario, but we try to keep it simple here at the Army PRT. We’re sure some of you are very familiar with that concept. The army has tanks, whereas the Marine Infantry is getting rid of theirs.
Force Design and Restructuring
There’s a lot of restructuring going on in the Marine Corps currently, and the Marine Infantry is being affected. Known as Force Design 2030, there are tons of changes headed their way for the Marine Corps.
By looking at what’s going on, one way of looking at the two different entities is that the Marine Infantry is more of a light infantry force, whereas the Army Infantry is more of a heavy infantry force.
Key Differences Between the Army Infantry and Marine Infantry
- Amphibious Capabilities: Another key difference between the Army and Marine Infantry is the fact that the Marines have amphibious capabilities, whereas the Army Infantry does not.
- Remember, the Marines are in the Department of the Navy, so they will have many operations that are closely integrated with naval ships and amphibious assault vehicles.
- Amphibious warfare is the name of the game for the Marine Corps.
- Medical Assets: And speaking of the Navy, the Navy is closer to the Marine Infantry than you think, unlike the Army, which has its own organic combat medics, also referred to as 68 Whiskeys, who are attached to them.
- The Marines do not have their own medical assets. They pull from the Navy, with the majority of them being corpsmen.
| Infantry | Medical Support |
|---|---|
| Army Infantry | 68Ws (Combat Medics) |
| Marine Infantry | Navy Corpsmen |
Table 2: Capabilities, Missions, and Opportunities – US Army Infantry vs US Marine Infantry
| Infantry Aspects | US Army Infantry | US Marine Infantry |
|---|---|---|
| Size | Much bigger than the Marine Infantry. | Smaller compared to Army Infantry. |
| Responsibility | More responsibilities higher in the army ranks | Marines have a lot more responsibilities in lower rank |
| Engagement | Army is better equipped for | Primarily a striking assault force. |
| Equipment Restructure | Army Infantry is better equipped for long term engagements due to its being more of an occupational force | Undergoing a major restructuring – Force Design 2030. |
| Amphibious Capabilities | Does not have amphibious capabilities. | Marines have amphibious capabilities that are closely integrated with naval ships and amphibious assault vehicles. |
| Medical Assets | Army infantry has its own organic combat medics, also referred to as 68 Whiskeys, who are attached to them. | Marine Infantry pull from the Navy, with the majority of them being corpsmen. |
Career Fields: Infantry
Okay, so you get the gist of what these infantries are. What are their career fields like, as well as their opportunities?
In the army, if you’re an infantryman, you’re either an 11 Alpha, an 11 Bravo, or an 11 Charlie.
- An 11 alpha is an infantry officer.
- An 11 Bravo is your standard infantryman.
- 11 Charlie is an indirect fire infantryman, otherwise known as a mortarman. This means that you get to serve in the army’s infantry as either an enlisted soldier or an officer.
In the Marines, if you’re an infantryman, you’re an O3. There are a lot of other MOSs you can get further into your infantry career, but we’ll focus on the core ones.
The core enlisted Marine Infantry MOSs are:
- 0311 MOS
- 0331 MOS
- 0341 MOS
- 0351 MOS
- 0352 MOS
- Then there’s 0301 MOS, which is your basic infantry officer. So this also means you can serve as both an enlisted or officer in the Marine Infantry.
Marine Infantry
| Infantry Aspects | US Army Infantry | US Marine Infantry |
|---|---|---|
| Roles | In the army, if you’re an infantryman, you’re either an 11 Alpha (infantry officer), an 11 Bravo (standard infantryman), or an 11 Charlie ).In the army, if you’re an infantryman, you’re either an | In the Marines, an infantryman can be an 0301 (basic infantry officer), 0311, 0331, 0341, 0351, and 0352 (core enlisted Marine Infantry MOSs). |
| Further Training | In the army Infantry, soldiers can go airborne, Air Assault, Ranger, Pathfinder, go to Sniper School, and much more, depending on the unit. | In the Marines, soldiers can become a scout Sniper, Recon Marine, attend Jump School, and in rare circumstances, attend Ranger School. |
| Opportunity Limitations | Opportunities are numerous due to size and funding. | Opportunities are more limited due to the smaller size and funding. |
Training
As far as follow on training goes, there are a lot of opportunities in both of these career fields.
In the Army Infantry, you can go to Airborne, Air Assault, Ranger, Pathfinder, Sniper School, and much more. It just depends on your unit.
In the Marines, you can become a scout sniper, a recon marine, or, in rare circumstances, go to Gota Jump School or, in even rarer circumstances, Ranger School. Again, the right place and time for some of these schools
By default, the army has much more opportunities for training and the like due to its size and funding, whereas the Marines do not.
Similarities
While there are a lot of differences between the Army and Marine Corps infantries, they are still both infantries.
There’s tons of overlap with how they do things as well as with their culture. With that out of the way, you now know some key similarities and differences between them.
We’re now going to go over the structure of both of these infantries as well as where you can be stationed. After that, we will go over the training pipelines and their requirements.
Let’s start off with the structure of the US Army Infantry.
The Basic Structure of the US Army Infantry
Just keep in mind that the Army is a much bigger branch than the Marine Corps, and its makeup is more complex. We’ll keep things simple for you here. The US Army employs three different types of infantry: light infantry, Stryker infantry, and mechanized infantry.
Light Infantry includes:
- Airborne Infantry
- Air Assault Infantry
- Ranger Infantry
You can think of Stryker infantry as medium infantry and mechanized infantry as heavy or armor infantry.
To understand the breakdown of the US Army Infantry, we’ll give you the breakdown of the army as a whole. This will give you a basic understanding of it all.
This will give you a basic understanding of it all. All right, the structure of the US Army is as follows:
- At the top, there are Armies. Armies consist of Cores, and each core has divisions.
- Divisions have Brigades or regiments.
- Brigades or Regiments typically have three to five types of Battalions.
- These Battalions have four to six Companies, and the companies have three to four platoons.
- Each platoon has two to three squads, and
- These squads have two fire teams.
- An army fire team consists of four soldiers: a team leader, an automatic rifleman, a grenadier, and a rifleman.
Table: The Structure of the US Army
| Level | Constituents |
|---|---|
| Armies | Cores |
| Cores | Divisions |
| Divisions | Brigades or Regiments |
| Brigades/Regiments | Three to five Battalions |
| Battalions | Four to six Companies |
| Companies | Three to four Platoons |
| Platoons | Two to three Squads |
| Squads | Two Fire Teams |
| Fire Teams | Four Soldiers: a Team Leader, an Automatic Rifleman, a Grenadier, and a Rifleman |
There you go. You now have a basic understanding of how the US Army is organized.
The Structure of the US Marine Infantry
Since it’s a much smaller entity, it is a bit easier to be specific. The Marine Infantry is the largest component of the Ground Combat Element, or GCE, of anything within the Marine Corps. Whether it’s a MEF, an MEB, a MEW, or a MAGTAF, there will always be a GCE element.
Within the Marine Infantry, there are four divisions: the First Marine Division, the Second Marine Division, the Third Marine Division, and the Fourth Marine Division.
- The first and second Marine Divisions have three Marine regiments.
- The Third and Fourth Marine Divisions have two
Within these regiments are battalions.
- First and Second have nine battalions.
- The third Division has six and
- Fourth Division has eight
So if you hear that someone was in one three, that means that they were in First Battalion, Third Marine regiment. The more you know. Okay, so now we’re on to the battalion level.
A Marine Infantry Battalion consists of three rifle companies, a weapons company, and a headquarters and service company
- Three rifle companies
- A weapons company
- A headquarters and service company
A platoon will have three rifle squads and a headquarters element. These rifle squads are made up of three fire teams, and these fire teams are made up of four Marines.
The fire team is the most basic element of the GCE. It contains a team leader, a rifleman, an automatic rifleman, and an assistant automatic rifleman.
Marine Infantry Summary Bullet Points:
A Marine Infantry Battalion is made up of:
- Three rifle companies
- A weapons company
- A headquarters and service company
A platoon within the battalion consists of:
- Three rifle squads
- A headquarters element
Each rifle squad is comprised of:
- Three fire teams
Each fire team is comprised of:
- Four Marines
The basic element of the Ground Combat Element (GCE), the fire team, includes:
- A team leader
- A rifleman
- An automatic rifleman
- An assistant automatic rifleman
Table: Structure of the Marine Infantry
| Divisions | Marine Regiments | Battalions | Battalion Components | Platoon Components | Fire Team Members |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Division | 3 | 9 | 3 Rifle companies, a weapons company, headquarters & service company | 3 rifle squads, the headquarters element | Team leader, rifleman, automatic rifleman, assistant automatic rifleman |
| Second Division | 3 | 9 | Three rifle companies, a weapons company, headquarters, and service company | Three rifle squads, headquarters element | Team leader, rifleman, automatic rifleman, assistant automatic rifleman |
| Third Division | 2 | 6 | Three rifle companies, a weapons company, headquarters, and service company | Three rifle squads, headquarters element | Team leader, rifleman, automatic rifleman, assistant automatic rifleman |
| Fourth Division | 2 | 8 | Three rifle companies, a weapons company, headquarters, and service company | Three rifle squads, headquarters element | Team leader, rifleman, automatic rifleman, assistant automatic rifleman |
So there you go. Now you know the basic breakdown of the Marine Infantry.
Station Locations for Army Infantry and Marine Infantry
All right, now you know the structure of both the Army infantry and the Marine infantry.
We’re now going to go over where you can be stationed in both of these communities.
We’ll start off with the Army Infantry and then move on to the Marine Infantry.
US Army Infantry Bases
US Army Infantry Bases, If you find yourself in the US Army Infantry, some of the places you can be stationed are:
- Fort Riley, Kansas
- Fort Lewis, Washington
- Fort Stewart, Georgia
- Fort Carson, Colorado
- Fort Bliss, Texas
- Fort Hood, Texas
- Fort Drum, New York
- Fort Polk, Louisiana
- Fort Wainwright, Alaska
- Fort Richardson, Alaska
- Schofield Barracks, Hawaii
- Fort Bragg, North Carolina
- Fort Campbell, Kentucky
The US Marine Infantry has bases mainly at:
The US Marine Infantry bases, If you find yourself in the Marine Infantry, you will be mainly stationed at:
- Camp Pendleton, California
- Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
- Twenty-nine Palms, California
- Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Hawaii
- Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia
Not much of a selection compared to your army counterparts, that’s for sure.
Marine Infantry Training
All right, now you know where you might be stationed if you get into the Army or Marine infantry.
Now you’re probably wondering what training is required for both of these. Let’s get into it.
We will start with the training required to become a Marine infantryman, then go over the Army’s.
To get into the Marine Infantry, you’ll have to go to boot camp, which is 13 weeks long, and then get through ITB, which is eight weeks long.
ITB stands for Infantry Training Battalion, which is conducted at the School of Infantry West, which is in Camp Pendleton, California, and the School of Infantry East, which is at Camp Geiger, North Carolina.
ITB trains, develops, and certifies Marines as riflemen, machine gunners, mortarmen, infantry assaultmen, and anti tank missilemen in order to provide basically qualified infantrymen for service in the operating forces.
Marines will receive training in marksmanship, grenades, land navigation, patrolling, and much more.
There’s also MICMAP, which stands for Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. There’s a lot of PT, conditioning, and hikes.
And a quick fun fact for you: starting in 2021, which is when this post came out, the Marine Corps is testing out a different infantry training curriculum that will be a longer course of instruction for infantry Marines.
This is part of the restructuring of the Marine Corps that we mentioned earlier. There are even talks of consolidating all of the MLSs into one.
Only time will tell if that happens for sure or not, though.
Becoming a Marine Infantry Officer
And if you want to become a Marine Infantry Officer, you’ll have to go through OCS (Officer Candidate School), then TBS (The Basic School), and then IOC, which stands for Infantry Officer Course.
Summary:
Training for Marine Infantry
- Boot Camp (13 weeks long)
- ITB – Infantry Training Battalion (8 weeks long)
ITB is conducted at:
- The School of Infantry West in Camp Pendleton, California
- School of Infantry East at Camp Geiger, North Carolina.
ITB trains, develops, and certifies Marines in the following areas:
- Riflemen
- Machine Gunners
- Mortarmen
- Infantry Assaultmen
- Anti-Tank Missilemen
Additional Training in:
- Marksmanship
- Grenades
- Land Navigation
- Patrolling
- PT, conditioning, and hikes
MICMAP – Marine Corps Martial Arts Program
Army Infantry Training
Let’s move on to the training you’d go through if you wanted to join the Army infantry. It all happens at one place, OSUT (One Station Unit Training). OSUT puts you through boot camp as well as your AIT (Advanced Individual Training) with the same instructors. Infantry OSUT is 22 weeks long and is located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
During your time in infantry school, you will learn these skills.
- Weapons Operation Maintenance
- Vehicle Operation and Maintenance
- Land Reconnaissance
- Map Reading and Navigation
- Minefield Safety
- Communications Equipment Operation
- Preparing Fighting Positions
- Constructing Barriers
Training for Army Infantry Officer
If you want to become an Army infantry officer, you’ll go to the Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course after your commission.
Do You Qualify?
Now you know what schools you’ll be expected to attend if you decide to embark on either of these journeys. But do you even qualify to give it a shot? This section is going to be pretty quick.
To qualify to be a Marine or Army infantryman, you’ll pretty much have to fit the basic service requirements for the branches.
Infantry Officer
And if you want to become an officer in either of these fields, you’ll need a bachelor’s degree in literally anything, even underwater basket weaving, if that’s your style.
These are very large and broad career fields, so their requirements won’t be as stringent as those of soft communities. But that by no means says that they are any less important or admirable. It’s just the way it is.
Differences between Army Infantry and Marine Infantry
| Army Infantry | Marine Infantry |
|---|---|
| More land-based | More amphibious |
| Larger size | Smaller size |
| More funding | Less funding |
| Work in concert with Marine Infantry to ensure successful military operations | Work in concert with Army Infantry to ensure successful military operations |
Conclusion and Further Resources
We’re about to wrap up this post; you learned that the Army Infantry and Marine Infantry are quite similar, yet very different.
They’re both highly trained in combat, but both have different specialties and purposes that they execute.
The army is more land-based, whereas the Marines are more amphibious.
The army infantry is much bigger than the Marine infantry and gets much more funding than the Marines.
But at the end of the day, they’re both crucial to the success of our military operations and work in concert with each other to keep us safe.
That leads us to our question for you. If you made it this far with us, which do you prefer? Army Infantry or Marine Infantry? Leave us a comment on what you think.
Born and raised in Bozeman, Montana, he graduated from George State University with an MBA in Actuarial Science. His hobbies include beach volleyball, hiking, fishing, and lifting weights
George is also a certified nutritionist with a passion for health and fitness.
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