volunteer army
Unpaid fighting force
A volunteer army is a military force composed of people who enlist by choice rather than through conscription or draft.
The term distinguishes such forces from those filled by compulsory service: The United States shifted to an all-volunteer army after Vietnam.
Volunteer armies rely on recruitment incentives—pay, benefits, training—rather than legal obligation.
- air forceMilitary aviation branch
- minutemenInstant-ready colonial militia
- infantryGround combat troops
- cavalryMounted military force
- navyMaritime military force
artillery · freedom fighters · special forces · armed forces · national guard · veterans · band of brothers · reserves · battalion · regiment · platoon · patriotism · division · ideology · incentives · serve your country · call to arms · sign up
- military forcesallied forces, soldiers, troops, coalition forces, militias
- Megachurchworship service, lead pastor, worship team, praise band, worship leader
- military enlistmentenlistment, recruit, enlisted, induction, recruits
- Militiascitizen militia, colonial militia, colonial militias, territorial defense, home guard
- volunteer forcescitizen soldiers, auxiliaries, home guard, reservists, reserve forces
- military personnelsoldiers, soldier, midshipmen, officers, troops
volunteer armyconscript army
Troops raised by compulsion
conscription · compulsory military service · mandatory service · draft · national service
volunteer, army, volunteers, volunteered, volunteering, volunteerism, voluntary, voluntarily, involuntary