base in Germany for awhile that included people from all our armed forces. They were in good shape but didn't keep up the gym schedule with the other Marines because their work involved brains over brawn. When at sea (up to 100 days at a time), most of the Mardet had little to do so they spent a lot of their days working out in the Mardet gym. The Mardet performed guard duty when we were in port. When I was in the Navy we had a Marine detachment, about 30 men, stationed aboard our ship. I've never understood why Marines have to have better bodies