Military volunteer
A military volunteer is a person who enlists in military service by free will, and is not a mercenary or a foreign legionnaire. Volunteers often enlist to fight in the armed forces of a foreign country. Military volunteers are essential for the operation of volunteer militaries.
Many armies, including the U.S. Army, formerly distinguished between "United States Volunteers" enlisted during a war, and "regulars" who served on long-term basis. Troops raised as state militia were always "volunteers" (even when recruited by conscription), while "U.S." troops could be volunteers or regulars. The rank of an officer in a volunteer unit was separate from his rank (if any) as a regular, and usually higher. When the volunteer forces were disbanded at the end of the war, officers with both kinds of commission reverted to their "regular" rank. For instance, George Armstrong Custer became a brigadier general of volunteers during the American Civil War, but when the war ended, he reverted to captain. (He was later promoted to lieutenant colonel.) Volunteer rank should not be confused with brevet rank.
The move to a volunteer over conscription force for a national military appears to improve, at least for the United States, the professionalism of its standing armed forces.
- Slovak volunteers in the Slovak Uprising of 1848-1849
- German volunteers for the Greek forces in Greco-Turkish War of 1897
- Scandinavian Corps volunteers in Boer Commando Army in the Boer War of 1899-1902
- Cretan volunteers in the First Balkan War of 1912-1913
- War volunteers of the Katharineum on 17 August 1914 (World War I)
- Dutch volunteers corps in Indonesia in 1918
- Flying Tigers, American volunteers in war-torn WWII Japanese occupied-China from 1942-1944
- Panzer-Grenadier-Division Großdeutschland German volunteers arrive at train station, during WWII, to fight on the Russian Eastern Front in February 1944
- Palestinian Arab volunteers in "Army of the Holy War" in 1947 fighting in the British Mandate of Palestine during Palestinian Civil War of 1947-1948
See also
- Foreign volunteers
- Sar-El, national project for volunteers for Israel
- SAF Volunteer Corps, volunteer scheme for the Singapore Armed Forces
- Foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Military volunteers. |