Rivalries among the military services have led to waste, duplicated effort, turf wars, and endless red tape. The services divide themselves by the places that they cover--the Navy takes the seas, the Air Force the sky, the Army the land--but that seems to be an outmoded way to work. After all, the Navy and Marines fly planes (and even the Army has helicopters and other aircraft); all branches of the service have contributed to space flight; and organizations such as the Marines, the Army Rangers and Special Forces, and the Navy SEALS have shown the advantages of servicemen who can handle any physical environment.
Why not combine the services? Give every recruit the same basic training, which would give him the rudiments of serving in a variety of situations, and then determine where he or she would work best. Combine organizations that do the same jobs; for instance, turn Army Intelligence and Navy Intelligence into one streamlined military intelligence service, and simplify the various logistics and support organizations into a single group that serves any and all services.
An easy task? Hell, no! There are endless conflicts to negotiate, from ranks in a unified service to the differing "corporate cultures."
But the benefits could be huge.
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Can I vote for this 10 times to the positive? A great idea, let's make it happen.
Sounds great to me. Let's hear some negatives because I sure don't see any.
Although the economics of unification are beneficial, the psychological obstacles to melting down the traditions of the services into one force seem to me to make the concept impossible. I doubt that the marines would consent to join the army over which they maintain a sense of superiority. Perhaps the rivalry of the several forces donates the forces with a certain competitive edge which might be worthwhile in battle.
See Future Combat Systems. The United States is in the process of unifying the military services.