volunteer forces
Unpaid military units
Volunteer forces are military or paramilitary units composed of people who serve by choice rather than conscription.
The term often refers to reserve or auxiliary troops who train part-time while maintaining civilian lives: The volunteer forces were called up during the crisis.
Historically, volunteer forces have supplemented regular armies in wartime, motivated by patriotism rather than compulsion or pay.
- reservistsPart-time armed forces members
- militiaNon-professional armed force
- boots on the groundMilitary presence in area
- neighborhood watchResident-led area surveillance
- citizen soldiersArmed civilians in wartime
aid workers · medical corps · helping hands · civic duty · national guard · first responders · emergency responders · home guard · park rangers · event organizers · environmental scientists · minutemen · advocacy groups · civil defense · community patrol · Red Cross · peace corps · search and rescue
- military forcesarmy, soldiers, troops, militias, reserve army
- Militiascitizen militia, colonial militia, colonial militias, territorial defense, citizen army
volunteer forcesconscript army
Troops raised by compulsion
draftees · conscription · compulsory service · compulsory military service · national service
volunteer forcesprofessional army
Paid, trained military force
standing army · regular army · career soldiers · regulars · mercenaries
volunteer, forces, force, volunteered, volunteering, volunteers, volunteerism, voluntary, voluntarily