It's an American show written mostly by Americans for an American audience. So it make sense that they would use American references and touchstones.
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Were MACOs Special Operations Forces or regular infantry?
- Thread starter Shamrock Holmes
- Start date
You are aware the the word Armada means Navy, right?"
Armada Española translates to English as "Navy Spanish (Spanish Navy)," Not Spanish Armada.
Why would you leave one of the two words untranslated?
No, it's not. In fact it's quite common among world military organizations on medals to signify multiple awards of the same commendation. The gold oak leaf is especially common among German military units both today and in the past, as the oak tree is one of the national symbols of Germany.
Dude... we get it, you want space marines. MACO isn't that. It stands for something that is clearly defined no matter how much you want to make fanon countermand on-screen costume pieces. You've supposed that simply the notion that MACO uses a marine animal as their logo that makes them equivalent to the Marines? By that logic, the Seattle Mariners are also the Marines. It's in their name... they wear uniforms... they have a captain... and the are headquartered nearby a U.S. Navy base.
Just... no. MACO are not the USMC. If you want to be a Marine, I hear they have recruiting offices for that sort of thing.
Common as a insignia of rank? No, oak leaves are used outside the United States in military decorations and such, but again not rank insignia.
Then you should be able to accurately translate two words in Spanish into English.
MACO golden oak leaf:
U.S. military golden oak leaf:
German military oak leaves look vastly different in design.
MACO ranks + unique U.S. military golden oak leaf + marine life on a patch + role of assault troops aboard a ship.
The point was MArine COrps or a role of marines.
Next you're going to insist that Starfleet isn't a military space navy.
It isn't...
What now, the 24th century Federation doesn't use money?
"The economics of the future is somewhat different. You see, money doesn't exist in the 24th century"
~ Jean-Luc Picard
It's what ever the writers of the moment need it to be.
Now this is more like it...
I can definately buy into the idea that something like Force Recon exists with the same structure as the MACOs, I particularly like the following, especially the bolded bits:
Although Force Recon has never been part of the United States Special Operations Command, their missions slightly differentiate themselves from other United States Special Operations Forces units. Colloquially, they are specialized in all tactical areas of warfare. Force Recon will train with other Special Operations forces, such as, United States Navy SEALs, United States Army Special Forces, and United States Air Force Pararescue, in order to master all skill sets. The Marine Corps has seen fit to train versatile specialists rather than specialists in individual areas of combat.
I'm still not entirely sold on the MACOs being the above, as they still seem invested to largish functional units and everything we've seen onscreen of the MACOs indicates a force orientated around small functional units.
On the other hand, the Marine Raiders (which are Special Operations Forces) sound like more the kind of thing (particularly if you add in the LE capabilities from non-DoD equivalent units like FBI HRT or USCG DOG):
The base unit of the Raiders is the fourteen-man Marine Special Operations Team (MSOT). Each 14-man MSOT is organized into three elements: a Headquarters (HQ) and two identical Tactical Squads. The HQ element consists of a Special Operations Officer Team Leader(SOO/Captain), Team Chief (Master Sergeant CSO), Operations SNCO (Gunnery Sergeant CSO), and a communication SNCO. Each Tactical Element consists of an Element Leader (Staff Sergeant CSO), three Critical Skills Operators (Sergeant/Corporal CSOs), and a Navy Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman (SARC). The organization allows a Team to operate on its own if needed, but maintains the ability to operate as part of a bigger unit such as an MSOC or SOTF, similar to Army Special Forces ODA/B.
In 2014, it was announced that the Marine Special Operations Regiment and its subordinate units would be renamed Marine Raiders.[10] However, due to administrative delays the renaming did not become official until June 19, 2015.
Thoughts?
Not directly or purely no, they re a hybrid. For one thing, ENT: Hatchery and possibly other episodes indicate that MACOs are trained in routine starship piloting and general operations which - as far as I know - is not the case for the Raiders or even the Marines in general. In this respect, they are more like USN MAAs (who are typically training as general crew in addition to their specific rating).