Board Thread:The Reference Desk/@comment-6433721-20130309172853/@comment-188432-20130315164713

Yeah, I will certainly grant that this admits of several interpretations. The question really is whether we're supposed to think there are commas even present or if this actor just chose to Shatner it up. Or maybe the script has it bound all together with hyphens — the "thin-fat-gay-married-Anglican marines" —  and the actor simply treated the hyphens as commas.

But it doesn't matter. The only thing that a comma does is to tell you that the — that each adjective can be equally applied to the noun. If there were no commas, then each adjective "builds upon" the other to create a combined picture. (And frankly that's my reading of the situation. I think the guy saw he and his partner as all those things combined. )

Either way, though, an "Anglican marine" is what he is.

The real question is what to do about "marine". Is it capitalised or not? If it's not, then the assumption is that the description is particular to him. In other words, the marines could be interdenominational, and he is therefore an "Anglican marine". But if everyone else is also Anglican, we'd expect that they'd be marines for the Anglican church, and thus Anglican Marines.

I notice you seem to have focussed all your energies on A Good Man Goes to War. Have you scoured all three episodes in which they're featured? There may be something you're overlooking in The Time of Angels.