[quote=ironraven]During the national anthem at a public event if you think somebody is prior military (or active and in civilian clothing) look at how they position their left hand, the different branches have slight variations in the position of attention. Army and Air Force stand with a closed fist with their knuckles parallel to the floor whereas USMC and Navy close their fist with their thumb and forefinger along the seam of their pants and the knuckles basically at 45 degree angle to the floor. They have different grooming standards too and although an Army ranger's high and tight haircut may look the same to most people as a Marine's those of us who have been around them can distinguish between the two without a second glance.
The Army also has your left hand curled, thumb overlapping fingers, lined with outside seam. Also, Rangers no longer wear high and tights-it is now discouraged, actually. There are several reasons for this-the foremost is that Rangers usually provide security during special ops tactical strikes (hostage retrieval, high profile snatchings, etc). The bad guys in the mideast quickly learned who the Rangers were, and who the REAL threats were-by looking at their haircuts. As a result, the Rangers have relaxed their hair grooming standards, to better blend with the operators doing the high risk stuff. It was requested specifically to JSOC after several incidences of targeted hits during raids.
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