Army Airborne Infantry VS. Marine Corp Infantry?

[somebody-nobody]

Im not sure which one i want to join, could you please give me an idea of the pros and cons of both. im 18 and im about to join, my recruiter told me you have to be 20 to get the ranger contract (frustrating) so i cant go straight to ranger, ill have to wait about two years.

my grandfather was in the marine corps infantry and something about the marine corp just seems hard core. but the army airborne infantry gets to jump out of planes! and i believe the army is better funded so they get better equipment.

but also, i would rather be deployed to afghanistan that iraq, i feel that the real enemy is in afghanistan (and pakistan) but i will sure as hell go to iraq if i am needed their with no complaints. so, i am wondering where i would most likely be deployed in the army or in the marines

also, i am most likely going to go for sniper school, i read that in the marines you got to go to indoc, then wait in a sniper battalion for almost a year until you get to go through sniper school, what is it like in the army? it seems like it would be a lot easier to get into sniper school since there is more slot available, do they have some kind of indoc too?
and also, ive heard a lot of bad things about the acu, like complaints about the camo pattern and the velcro and the zippers breaking, so i am taking that into account too

and i also want to take into account the m16 and the m4, cause i see a lot of army guys carrying the m4 around and most of the marines i see are carrying the m16, i dont know why but id like to know!
well "roger", you have a picture of an alien instead of yourself, so i obviously am not going to take anything you say seriously

 

[Tyler]

Comes down to this: If you want benefits, go army
If you want the pride of being a Marine, go Marine

 

[Roger]

I think you attitude will turn you into cannon fodder more than airborne infantry.

 

[Matthew]

if your grandfather was in the marine corps, then keep the tradition in the family. being deployed all depends on your unit that you are with and weather they are gonna get activated to O.I.F or O.E.F. the difference between the m16 and the m4, that the m4 is compact with a colapsable stock, and the m16 is the standard fighting weapon of the u.s armed forces.

 

[alexander m]

units like the 82nd recieve a lot more and better training than usmc infantry does, because our job requires it. the marines train to take a beach from the sea, where they have all of the support they want. the airborne trains to jump in behind enemy lines, assault and capture an objective, and hold on to it, by ourselves, with little or no support at all, for atleast 3 days. atleast on paper tahts what the 2 jobs are.
anyway, yes the army, and especialy the airborne units, are much better equiped than the marines. yes to a point equipment doesnt mean everything, but when i can go through a door with my m-4 already up and ready to go, while some marine has to wait until he's through the door to get his m-16 up because its too big, it does mean a lot.
not sure how every unit does sniper school. in my unit they would only send you if you were part of LRS-D or in a SRRP platoon. you wont get either of those right off the bat. LRS (same thing as force recon only each division has its own section) really only takes soldiers with a deployment under their belt and a ranger tab. SRRPs have more spots to fill, but they'll take experienced infantrymen before new ones. you can also reenlist for sniper school in the army, you just need to have good qualification scores.
the army is doing more work in afghanistan and iraq than the marines are, trust me you'll end up going. especially because we're pulling out of iraq and focusing on afghanistan.
ACUs are ok, they have a few problems. their crotch seems to rip open so you might come back from a mission once or twice with your balls hanging out. no one uses the zippers during deployment anyway, too hot, just velcro it shut. the camo pattern is ok, once you get a coating of dust on it its actualy great.
btw, marines carry the m-16s because the army sold all of its uneeded m-16s to the marines when we started to get the m-4. and because the marines value an extra few meters for an accurate shot more than close combat ability. i've never gotten in a firefight where it wasnt within the m-4s range.