History Main / InterserviceRivalry

** And with perhaps ''slightly'' less intensity whenever Army or Navy plays Air Force.

* Deliberately invoked by Hitler, who kept the military, SS, and Gestapo at each others' throats so none of them would be in a strong enough position to overthrow him and seize control of Germany.

* Particularly during the Napoleonic Wars, the British Army vs the Royal Navy. The Navy was the more glamorous and respectable service, while the Army was the one actually fighting Napoleon in Europe but often considered a poor second by high society. This is referenced in fiction set in this time period such as ''{{Sharpe}}'', MasterAndCommander and so on.

** And the Army always loses (just like in everything else). The US Navy's official song Anchors Aweigh is about the Navy beating the army in the Army vs Navy football game.

* The London Metropolitan police and City of London police in the JackTheRipper case. Rather than share information, each faction tried to obstruct the other- this is sometimes argued to have been a major reason why the killer was never caught.

* Deliberately invoked by Hitler, who kept the military, SS, and Gestapo at each others throats so none of them would be in a strong enough position to overthrow him and seize control of Germany.

* In ''[[MilesVorkosigan The Vor Game]]'' by LoisMcMasterBujold, one villain talks about how he regrets the ''lack'' of interservice rivalry in the military he's serving in--he feels it gave the top brass more leverage when dealing with mutineers.

* During {{World War Two}} The rivalry between the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy was so intense that it was a factor in their defeat.

When it doesn't, one of the reasons usually is InterserviceRivalry, where at least two branches of the government don't work well together, sometimes openly opposing and working against each other. Usually if the leaders of said branches know each other, they can't let go of their past feelings and it intensifies the rivalry. Often in military fiction (probably in real life as well), some amount of Interservice Rivalry will be encouraged by the higher-ups, to promote a competitive spirit but sometimes it can get out of hand.

** The grudges are taught young, as evidenced by the rivalry between military-oriented youth programs. If a Navy Sea Cadet runs into a Civil Air Patrol cadet, the excrement ''will'' hit the fan. Slightly less vitriolic is the relationship between the Army Cadet Corps and the Civil Air Patrol, the fights of which seems to take the form of the Army Cadets saying "ha ha, we get to use guns." As for the Young Marines, they are roundly laughed at for wearing orange nametapes and ''ribbons'' on battledress.

* For ''FinalFantasyVII'', while it seemed as if the divisions were pretty spiffy with each other in the original game, ''CrisisCore'' showed that [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Shinra]] corps seemed to be in a constant state of war. The mook Midgar security soldiers didn’t like the more attention hogging SOLDIERs, the mooks ignore Turk instructions in lieu of getting more rewards for themselves, the SOLDIERs treating the smaller foot soldiers as nothing better than CannonFodder … the dynamics of which contributed highly to [[spoiler:Zack’s death in the end, as the soldiers rushed forth to execute Zack before the Turks arrived at the scene]].
* The SPARTANS-II and the ODST in ''{{Halo}}''. Before the Spartans came into the picture, the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper was the elite of the United Nations Space Command Defence Forces, so then the Spartans took over as the elite, the ODST wasn't happy about it. What was more insulting to them was that when John-117 killed two ODST troopers in a gym in his earlier ages, he didn't got punished for it. Eversince then, the ODST hadn't seen the Spartans as nothing more then "freaks", "cyborgs" and as "non-humans", due to the Spartans' special powers and superiority over the "normal" human beings. It ain't getting better that the Spartans seems to have more respect from the other marines then them, even if the Spartans is actually a part of the navy.
** The Covenant forces had an rivaly between the Sangheilis, or the Elites, and the Jiralhanae, or the Brutes. The Elites had been the dominiated species of the Covenant's military since it was created. The Brutes had only been in the Covenant for some decades, but had already proved themselves as the most loyal followers of the Prophets, and so believed that they whould be better bodyguards and military leaders for the Prophets then the Elites. The Elites sees the Brutes as nothing more then uncivilized, megalomaniacal savages, which insult them greatly. Prophet of Truth, the leader of the Covenant, was aware of this rivaly and so [[spoiler:used it into sparking a civil war between them, with hopes that the Brutes whould replace the Elites as the leading faction of the Covenant. The reason he did it would be simply that he had secretly hated the Elites, since they and the Prophets were in a bloody war before the Covenant's creation, and he believed that the Brutes were more loyal and faithful to him]]. [[spoiler:The other species' loyalty were splittered: the Yanme'e, or the Drones, and the Kig-yar, or the Jackals, were complete loyal to the Brutes and the Prophets, while the Mgalekgolo, or the Hunters, and the Unggoy, or the Grunts, were both loyal to the Elites and the Brutes]]. [[spoiler:This bloody rivaly caused the Elites to ally themselves with the Humans, and with their help, killed Truth and finished the Covenant off as a superpower]].

* The various chapters of [[SuperSoldier Space Marines]] occasionally develop rivalries, most notably an ''ancestral'' grudge between the [[SpaceWolf Space Wolves]] and Dark Angels. The latest Codex also mentions one between the [[JetPack Raven Guard]] and [[BadassBiker White Scars]] that was patched up (somewhat) after [[FireForgedFriends members of two chapters found themselves going after the same bad guy]].

** The Space Wolves have fought wars against the Imperium to prevent similar occurences. They haven't been declared Traitoris Excommunicatis because tehy're so beloved by the people the protect and that they protect a huge area of space much better than half a dozen younger chapters ever could.

** This troper has a friend who joined the Army to get back at one of his parents, an Air Force major.

** For the most part, though, interservice rivalry is implausibly averted. The USAF's technical expertise seems only exceeded by its success in defending its budget. Even though each service would have compelling arguments for an equal or superior share of a joint command, the Army (U.S. Army Special Forces, most missions call for infantry more than anything) and Navy (expertise running large vessels called "ships," the USMC, Navy SEALs) departments evidently are happy to let the Air Force run the show. The fact that the SGC is still not a joint command after 10+ years is one of the greatest triumphs in the history of Pentagon politics.

* In ''DaleBrown'''s books, rivalry between the services of the military is just part of the trouble the protagonists get from supposedly-friendly forces.

* A large portion of the movies featuring the US military in WorldWar2 features at least one interservice bar fight, in a fictional version of the Army-Navy rivalry mentioned below.
** Played for laughs in ''[[NineteenFortyOne 1941]]'' with a truly epic all-services fight at the USO ("Ladies and gentlemen, every where I look... soldiers are fighting sailors, sailors are fighting Marines! Directly in front of me, I see... a flying blond floozy! Everywhere I look... everywhere, pure pandemonium... pandemonium!")

* In ''DieHard'' the FBI vs local police.

* "The Soviets are our adversary. Our enemy is the Navy." said by Curtis [=LeMay=], General in the United States Air Force during the Cold War.
** The newly formed USAF made an effort shortly after WW2 to take control of Navy aircraft, but failed. The Navy has neither forgotten nor forgiven. The Army has yet to forgive the Air Force for becoming autonomous in 1947 either.

* WW2 again: who won the war in the Pacific, the Army or the Navy? Roosevelt had both of them playing against each other, even while fighting a war.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis Iranian Hostage Crisis]] was a classic case of this. The Army, Navy, and Air Force each wanted to take the lead on getting the hostages out of Iran, so that none of them could hog all the glory. So they came up with a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw compromise plan]]. The result? [[EpicFail Three guesses, first two don't count.]] Afterward, the U.S. Special Operations Command ([[BadassArmy SOCOM]]) was created out of the special operations branches of all three services. The Marine Corps followed suit... ''eventually''.

* More from the United States: The Army and Marine Corps see Air Force personnel as lazy and incompetent. Air Force personnel see the Army as disposable cannon fodder and the Marine Corps as meat-headed thugs. The Marine Corps, Army and Air Force will almost always make [[HelloSailor gay sailor jokes]] whenever the Navy is brought up. The Navy for its part thinks they do all the real work, and has the following acronym: '''M'''y '''A'''ss '''R'''ides '''I'''n '''N'''avy '''E'''quipment, '''S'''ir. All of them laugh at the mere mention of the Coast Guard. This all takes the form of friendly rivalry, as all of them have to work together to achieve the same goals.
** The Marines have their own acronym for the Army: '''A'''in't '''R'''eady for '''M'''arines '''Y'''et.
** And the Navy will sometimes refer to ''their own name'' as '''N'''ever '''A'''gain '''V'''olunteer '''Y'''ourself
** And the Air Force... has a name that really doesn't seem to make good backronyms.
*** The nickname the Chair Force is good enough.
*** This troper has also heard Chair Borne Rangers.

* The US's military-oriented youth programs has this in spades. If a Navy Sea Cadet runs into a Civil Air Patrol cadet, the excrement ''will'' hit the fan. Slightly less vitriolic is the relationship between the Army Cadet Corps and the Civil Air Patrol, the fights of which seems to take the form of the Army Cadets saying "ha ha, we get to use guns." As for the Young Marines, they are roundly laughed at for wearing orange nametapes and ''ribbons'' on battledress.
* In war games, Canada and the US. It doesn't help that the Canadian regular infantry is trained in such a way that they have all the expertise of the US black ops, vs the Americans sheer numbers.
** Obviously, there is no hint of a biased opinion in the preceding poster.

* Alexander Hamilton in ''The Federalist Papers'' specifically said that he wanted the government arranged so that the congress, the courts, and the presidency would always be getting in each other's way and thus none would become more powerful then was appropriate. As his ideas seemed to work out, one can say that he was GenreSavvy.

* Endemic in the "Laundry" by CharlesStross. Many members of an above-top-secret agency that combats EldritchAbominations consider its archenemy to be ... Human Resources. Political maneuvering among various managers -- and the protagonist always has two -- feeds the conflict as much or more than brain-eating horrors from other universes.

*Alexander Hamilton in ''The Federalist Papers'' specifically said that he wanted the government arranged so that the congress, the courts, and the presidency would always be getting in each other's way and thus none would become more powerful then was appropriate. As his ideas seemed to work out, one can say that he was GenreSavvy .

** Though the unfortunate prevalence of accidental friendly fire in Soviet forces - largely due to the rush to Berlin - makes it unlikely that the friendly fire was deliberate.