DO MARINES WEAR BULLETPROOF CLOTHING?
Marines don’t need body armor because Marines don’t get shot. Marines are agile, mobile, and hostile, easily capable of sniping off an entire enemy battalion from 500 yards away, while on the move. This, of course, is assuming the enemy battalion has not abandoned their posts at the sight of 36 Marines heading their way.
They wear protective body armor. We were first issued body armor during Vietnam. As an air crewman I sat on mine. We originally had one piece armor and then two piece. When the two piece came out we would wear the chest piece and sit on the back piece. Sometimes there are more important things to protect than your back. They still wear body armor which is not bullet proof. If you are hit wearing body armor and the bullet does not pierce the armor you may be picking yourself up off the ground. At a minimum you will have quite a bruise. The Army does wear a heavier armor because the Corps believes in the agility of its fighting men. When we take out 15 or 20 enemy to our one loss it becomes apparent that our freedom of movement is more important than the psycological protection of body armor.
