Ronald H. Mandell comments

SEALs are members of the US Navy. A Marine cannot be a SEAL, period. It has nothing to do, with, “making the Cut”. One enlists in the Marines for four years, and during that entire time, he will remain a Marine, exclusively. He cannot transfer to the Navy, thus he cannot become a SEAL

As a former Marine, I can say that the Marines Corps attracts more than it’s share of assholes, and I served with many. Many, if not most, join the Marines because they have a burning urge to prove that they are bad ass’. Once in the Corps, there is a competition to determine who can be the baddest ass, and win those supremely important bragging rights. This include of course becoming a smoker, and a drinker as soon as possible, and the Marine Corps does nothing at all to discourage this. Soon after becoming a drinker, and a smoker, these guys earn additional respect, by impressing anyone who will listen, by bragging that they are so addicted to these substances, that they cannot quit. Lots of very easily influenced loe brows in the Marines.,

I can remember other Marines being aghast to find me reading a book which did not have dirty pictures in it! Imagine living for years in a tightly packed barracks, of double story bunk beds, spending all your waking, and sleeping moments with these guys?

Finally though, if you have faith, keep your nose clean, follow orders, and do your job, you will, after two to three years, make that third rank of Corporal, become a Non Commissioned officer, and rise from the ranks of the unwashed, into these of the washed. On that day, your life changes. No longer are you condemned to live with these people. You move to new quarters, to live beside the rational, and the squared away, with your own club, new status, and new privileges, and a new mandatory title, that of Corporal, no longer one of the herd, no longer to be addressed by just your last name!