Military personnel ormilitary service members are members of the state'sarmed forces. Their roles, pay, and obligations differ according to theirmilitary branch (army,navy,marines,coast guard,air force, andspace force),rank (officer,non-commissioned officer, orenlisted recruit), and their military task whendeployed onoperations and onexercise.
Military personnel who serve in anarmy or otherwise large land force are referred to assoldiers. Those who serve in anavy,coast guard, or other seagoing force are seamen orsailors. Naval infantry ormarines are personnel who serve both on land and at sea, and may be part of a navy or a marine corps. Personnel who serve inair forces areairmen.Space force personnel typically do not have a specific term given how few exist, but in theU.S. Space Force personnel are referred to as guardians.[1]
Designated leaders of military personnel areofficers. These includecommissioned officers,warrant officers andnon-commissioned officers. For naval forces, non-commissioned officers are referred to aspetty officers.
Military personnel may beconscripted (recruited by compulsion under the law) orrecruited by attracting civilians to join the armed forces. Most personnel at the start of their military career are young adults. For example, in 2013 the average age of aUnited States Army soldier beginninginitial training was 20.7 years.[2]
Most personnel are male. The proportion offemale personnel varies internationally; for example, it is approximately 3% in India,[3] 10% in the UK,[4] 13% in Sweden,[5] 16% in the U.S.,[2] and 27% in South Africa.[6] Many state armed forces that recruit women ban them from groundclose-quarters combat roles. The general focus for use of female personnel is to free men up to fight.[7]
Personnel who join asofficers tend to beupwardly mobile young adults from age 18.[8][9] Most enlisted personnel have a childhood background of relativesocio-economic deprivation.[10][11][12] For example, after the US suspended conscription in 1973, "the military disproportionately attracted African American men, men from lower-status socioeconomic backgrounds, men who had been in nonacademic high school programs, and men whose high school grades tended to be low".[8] However, a 2020 study suggests thatU.S. Armed Forces personnel's socio-economic status are at parity or slightly higher than the civilian population, and that the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups are less likely to meet the requirements of the modern U.S. military.[13] As an indication of the socio-economic background ofBritish Army personnel, in 2015 three-quarters of its youngest recruits had theliteracy skills normally expected of an 11-year-old or younger, and 7% had a reading age of 5–7.[14]
Military personnel must be prepared to perform tasks that in civilian life would be highly unusual or absent. In particular, they must be capable of injuring and killing other people, and of facing mortal danger without fleeing. This is achieved in initial training, a physically and psychologically intensive process whichresocializes recruits for the unique nature of military demands.[15][16][17]
According to an expert in military training methods, Lt Col.Dave Grossman, initial training uses four conditioning techniques:role modeling,classical conditioning,operant conditioning, andbrutalization.[16] For example, throughout initial training:
In conditions of continuous physical and psychological stress, the trainee group normally forms a bond of mutual loyalty, commonly experienced as an emotional commitment. It has been called a "we-feeling", and helps to commit recruits to their military organisation.[20]
Throughout their initial training, recruits are repeatedly instructed to stand, march, and respond to orders in a ritual known asfoot drill, which trains recruits to obey orders without hesitation or question. According toFinnish Army regulations,[citation needed] for example, the close-order drill:
In order to ensure that recruits will kill if ordered to do so, they are taught toobjectify (dehumanize) their opponent as an "enemy target" to "be engaged", which will "fall when hit".[16][21] They are also taught the basic skills of their profession, such asmilitary tactics,first aid, managing their affairs in the field, and the use ofweaponry and other equipment. Training is designed to test and improve thephysical fitness of recruits, although the heavy strain on the body also leads to a rate of injury.[22][23][24][25]
Recruits enter a bindingcontract of service, which may differ according torank,military branch, and whether the employment isfull-time orpart-time.
Full-time military employment normally requires a minimum period of service of several years; between two and six years is typical of armed forces in Australia, the UK and the US, for example, depending on role, branch, and rank.[14][26][27] The exception to this rule is a shortdischarge window, which opens after the first few weeks oftraining and closes a few months later, and allows recruits to leave the armed force as of right.[28]
Part-time military employment, known asreserve service, allows a recruit to maintain a civilian job while training under military discipline for a minimum number of days per year in return for a financial bounty. Reserve recruits may be called out todeploy on operations to supplement the full-time personnel complement.
After leaving the armed forces, for a fixed period (between four and six years is normal in the UK and U.S., for example[27][28]), former recruits may remain liable for compulsory return to full-time military employment in order to train ordeploy on operations.
Military law introduces offenses not recognized by civilian courts, such asabsence without leave (AWOL),desertion, political acts,malingering, behaving disrespectfully, and disobedience (see, for example,offences against military law in the United Kingdom).[29] Penalties range from a summaryreprimand to imprisonment for several years following acourt martial.[29] Certain fundamental rights are also restricted or suspended, including the freedom of association (e.g. union organizing) and freedom of speech (speaking to the media).[29] Military personnel in some countries have a right ofconscientious objection if they believe an order is immoral or unlawful, or cannot in good conscience carry it out.
Personnel may be posted to bases in their home country or overseas, according to operational need, and may be deployed from those bases onexercises oroperations anywhere in the world. The length of postings and deployments are regulated. In the UK, for example, a soldier is expected to be on deployment for no more than six months in every 30 months.[30] These regulations may be waived at times of high operational tempo, however.
Benefits and perks of military service typically include adventurous training, subsidised accommodation, meals and travel, and apension. Some armed forces also subsidise recruits' education before, during and/or after military service; examples are theRoyal Military College Saint-Jean in Canada, theWelbeck Defence Sixth Form College in the UK, and theGI Bill arrangements in the US. Conditions for participation normally apply, including a minimum period of formal military employment.
While on duty, military personnel are normally required to wear amilitary uniform, normally showing their name,rank, andmilitary branch.
The dictionary definition ofpersonnel at Wiktionary
