Which came first -- The Navy or the Marines?
I've mentioned before that my maternal grandfather, William, served in the U.S. Marines. I'm still trying to find out how that happened, given that he was born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, which was noted in his service record. His record came from the Department of the Navy, and given that I know basically nothing about military history, I assumed that at the time of his service, the Marines were a part of the U.S. Navy when he served and later were separated to be a standalone branch of the armed forces. I was wrong. Now whoever reads this may scoff and say, "Well, of course. Everybody knows this." In that case, you may skip the rest of this post. But if, like me, you had the same misconception, allow me to tell you what I've discovered. My views, I realized, were primarily formed from my consumption of popular entertainment -- movies where members of each service ride each other about which is better, whose function is more indispensable, those sorts of thi...