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Comment by leed25d | Hacker News Reader

Up until now, it has been Army, Coast Guard, Navy, Marines and Air Force. This is nice and symmetrical since there are five sides to the Pentagon and five stars in the highest possible general rank. The addition of another branch breaks this symmetry, though. So, what to do?

I propose that the Marines be subsumed by the Department of the Navy since they are naturally part of that branch. The symmetry is thus restored. The branches of the Military, then, will be the Army and it's Four Bitches as it has been and as it always should be.

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The shape of the Pentagon is an artifact of the shape of the property where it was originally going to be built. The location changed mid design but in the interest of speed of design and construction they kept the original shape. Nothing more symbolic to it than that (this is why it's such an irregular pentagon, the shape was whatever the perimeter of the original space looked like).

The pentagon was built during racial segregation, so they had to have separate toilets for whites and blacks.

Having twice as many toilets as necessary because of ancient Jim Crow laws is better symbolism.

How about removing the coast guard from the military hierarchy and restoring its status as a civilian service?

The Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Before that it was part of the Department of Transportation and before that, the Commerce Department. (It was originally established to collect custom duties.)

It's only part of the "military hierarchy" in times of war, such as World War I and World Way II, when it falls under the Navy.

It should be back in Commerce (and abandoning the "homeland" security experiment would be good too).

Coast Guard has never been DoD.

> In 2002 it was placed under the DHS. During time of war it may be transferred to the Department of the Navy, under the Department of Defense.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniformed_services_of_the_Un...

I don't think 5 star general is a rank anymore. There is also one 6 star, George Washington, General of the Armies.

As far as branches, the Merchant Marines falls under the DoD as well. IIRC, it had the highest casualty rate of any of the branches in WWII.

> There is also one 6 star, George Washington, General of the Armies.

John J. Pershing was also promoted to that rank, while he was still an active officer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_of_the_Armies

Well... there are 8 uniformed military services. The Coast Guard also falls under the DHS and formally the Department of Transportation not Defense and the Marines are a department of the US Navy.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniformed_services_of_the_Un...

All that’s needed to be said is that they fall under the Department of Defense.

That Pentagon though...can't function follow form?

5 walls for terrestrial --- the roof can be the space force.

Don’t touch the Marines.

Yes a Department of the Navy, but it's by far the "Men's Department". (Said in an old school way that's not really appropriate these days)

Computing pioneer Grace Hopper was an Admiral in the US Navy.

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