Help settle an argument. Are US Navy personnel ever considered "soldiers"?

The term "warfighter" has come into vogue lately, but "servicemember" is still a good catch-all term for people who have served in the armed forces. This is supported by the fact the law previously known as the "Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act of 1940" is now properly known as the "Servicemembers Civil Relief Act."

So a sailor isn't a soldier. Neither is an airman, marine, guardsman, or whatever the Space Force calls itself. Those are individual departments under the blanket of military service personnel.
 
Had a friend that enlisted in the Navy.
He thought he's spend his time mostly in the water on a boat.

He spent most of his time patrolling on foot in Afghanistan carrying a machine gun next to guys from the Coast Guard.
They called themselves "dirt sailors".
 
Army = soldiers
Marines = marines
Navy = sailors
Airforce = airmen

That's it. Sometimes civilians will use 'soldiers' as a catch-all phrase, but nothing against them. It's understandable when somebody says that because they didn't know better vs ones that snidely say it.
The above is correct. There are no modification to it....unless you want to call a guy in the Navy a squid.........super squid.......or flying squid. But you must be a fellow vet to speak these terms.
 
The only slang term that comes to mind for SEALs is frogmen, and I don’t know if they’d consider that derogatory.

However, I’ve met about a dozen Seabees in my life, and while genpop may think of “construction battalions” as not only non-naval but also low risk… man, every single one of those Seabees (all pre-1985 service) had stories that were not only wild, but as harrowing as you could expect this side of SEALs in Navy service. They’re definitely an under-appreciated group IMO.

Plus, the only Seabee house party I ever went to, by 10am the host’s wife was in the back yard with a home built contraption that had a 2-stroke weed eater motor running a gearbox they had melded the base of their blender onto, mixing Everclear-based drinks at about 9k RPM…. Wild dudes. Much respect!
 
Those poor guys in Pearl Harbor, they weren't SOLDIER's !!!!!!!!!!!!! My a-s !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you have a weapon, you're a soldier.
No. One is an act and other is a generalized term. There are soldiers in the Army who only push papers or cook meals. Nothing do with fighting. Civilians always like to think about the military as the boots on the ground grunts or SpecOps, but in reality the majority of the Armed Forces are not those in those roles. Even in your Pearl Harbor analogy, there were sailors on ships providing medical or preforming damage control to keep ships afloat. All of which requires guts and tenacity, but none of which requires a rifle. A sailor is a sailor. A soldier is a soldier.
 
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The only slang term that comes to mind for SEALs is frogmen, and I don’t know if they’d consider that derogatory.

However, I’ve met about a dozen Seabees in my life, and while genpop may think of “construction battalions” as not only non-naval but also low risk… man, every single one of those Seabees (all pre-1985 service) had stories that were not only wild, but as harrowing as you could expect this side of SEALs in Navy service. They’re definitely an under-appreciated group IMO.

Plus, the only Seabee house party I ever went to, by 10am the host’s wife was in the back yard with a home built contraption that had a 2-stroke weed eater motor running a gearbox they had melded the base of their blender onto, mixing Everclear-based drinks at about 9k RPM…. Wild dudes. Much respect!
My kids boss was a Seabee. I love his dirty Navy stories.
 
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