Galactic Marines

[Lonestar]

The only ships that marines are in are amphibs. I was on the Theodore Roosevelt CVN-71 and all the carriers got rid of the MARDET (Marine Detachment) because we dont carry nuclear weapons anymore. I worked as an Aviation Ordnanceman and one of my jobs during GQ was manning the .50 cal.

Ahhh....there you may be mistaken. I can ask Ender (he's on the Truman) but there *is* a Marine aviation detachment on board carriers now.

[MandangoWarrior]

The only ships that marines are in are amphibs. I was on the Theodore Roosevelt CVN-71 and all the carriers got rid of the MARDET (Marine Detachment) because we dont carry nuclear weapons anymore. I worked as an Aviation Ordnanceman and one of my jobs during GQ was manning the .50 cal.

Ahhh....there you may be mistaken. I can ask Ender (he's on the Truman) but there *is* a Marine aviation detachment on board carriers now.

yeah there is an Marine Aviation Detachment, we had VMFA-251 on my first cruise and the Truman had VMFA-115 on their cruise but up until 1999 there was a marine detachment on board but not in an aviation capacity they were there to guard the nuclear weapons that used to be carried on board Aircraft carriers. But on my ship the Marine Aviation guys didnt stand our .50 cal watches.

[Lonestar]

Well, as I said, I'm defering the Ender's judgment on the whole Marines on .50 cal issue, I'm on a CG so we didn't have that, obviously.

[Danny Bhoy]

Sorry to jack this thread but the navy operates the .50 cal at least we did on my ship (I was a .50 cal gunner)

Ender is probably refering to Amphibs and CV/Ns...the only ships that have large Marine contingents. In those cases, it would make a lot more sense having the Marines onboard man the Machine guns, rather than divert the (relatively) fewer GMs and guys who have .50 cal gunner as their collateral to handle it.

As an aside on my vessel pretty much the only department that wasn't on a .50 cal/M60/25 mm during sea &anchor or SSDFwas engineering. Hell, one of my Coworkers station at Sea & Anchor is .50 cal Gunner...and he's a CT.


Of course, CG's are different birds than Amphibs (and to a lesser degree Carriers) in that we don't have a lot of Marines sitting around doing nothing.

In the SWverse, most of the larger ships we see have Stormtrooper/Clonetrooper contingents, which I suspect is why we see them manning guns. On any thing smaller than Victorys (like, say, "Light Crusiers") there isn't much in the way of a large Marine contingent.

What ship were you on?

I seem to recall in the old days that capital ships like BBs and BCs in the RN had at least one of their main gun turrets manned by their bootneck contingent. Jutland fans might recall LION's 'Q' turret being one such RM-manned station.

[Ender]

Well, as I said, I'm defering the Ender's judgment on the whole Marines on .50 cal issue, I'm on a CG so we didn't have that, obviously.

I've seen Marines and redshirts man the 50 cals when we go in and out of port.

[Connor MacLeod]

In Republic #69 clones are seen as the bridge crew of an Acclamator; in Obsession #4 they're the bridge crew of a Venator. The only other time a bridge is shown in the comics is in Republic #64, where the crew is of non-clones (and the captain is Pellaeon, oddly enough). In Clone Wars Chapter 22 the crew of a Venator is all clones.

As a side note, it bugged me in Republic Commando that the Delta's coordinator or whatever was also a clone, who wore full armor despite being (presumably) far away from the battlefield.

EDIT: Dismissing the fact that clones fly fighters because "real life marines do that too" is reaching a bit. The clones are the only fighter pilots shown in almost all sources (excepting, of course, vague references to non-clone pilots in the ICS) including the movies. In real life, marine aircraft do not make up the main part of a fighter force.

Well they ARE fighting a war, so one would presume that at some point they were running shorrt on experienced naval crews, which would probably mean they WOULD turn to clones to run the crews (I doubt they've gone to conscription yet.)

Of course, it wouldn't make sense for the ENTIRE navy to be run by clones - recall that in ROTS we see that clone pilots and troopers both obey first and foremost the Chancellor-turned-Emperor. In essence, the clones are his personal, private army utterly loyal to him rather than the Senate (I would even expect Palpy to have finagled clones onboard ship so he would have a personal navy.)

And anyone with a brain would have to realize that this would be so, after Order 66 (that and the fact they were willing to fire on a Republic Senator should be a clue!), they would logically want to take steps to curb his "private Army and Navy" from being too powerful. And thus, its likely that most of the Navy (and eventually, the Army) consists of non-clone elements (which leads to what we witness in the OT-era Empire.)

And since Palpy is not exactly a totalitarian dictator at this point (he doesnt wait to dissolve the Senate until ANHl, when he had the Death Star), and that he actually needs to maintain the fiction that there is still freedom and whatnot in the Republic/Empire, he has to at least play along with it (for the time being.)

[MandangoWarrior]

Well, as I said, I'm defering the Ender's judgment on the whole Marines on .50 cal issue, I'm on a CG so we didn't have that, obviously.

I've seen Marines and redshirts man the 50 cals when we go in and out of port.

It probaly varies from ship to ship

[Ender]

Well, as I said, I'm defering the Ender's judgment on the whole Marines on .50 cal issue, I'm on a CG so we didn't have that, obviously.

I've seen Marines and redshirts man the 50 cals when we go in and out of port.

It probaly varies from ship to ship

Might also have to do witht he fact that when I've seen them do it, once was during workups and there was no air crew aboard, and the others were various drills.

[MandangoWarrior]

Maybe so. Where on the truman did you work? I know quite a few guys on there.

[Lonestar]

Maybe so. Where on the truman did you work? I know quite a few guys on there.

He's an MM3 Nuke.

[MandangoWarrior]

Oh those guys..............