A military is a member of a “regular” Armée, i.e. instituted officially within a State. One also employs the term soldier when it is about a combatant.

On the other hand, one will rather speak about Mercenaire S when soldiers act within an organized combat unit private, with the service of a State (one also speaks about paramilitary unit), of Terroriste S when individuals, organized or not, act in a violent way against the instituted capacities, and rather of resistant, according to the point of view and the historical turning of the events, when these combatants (armed or not) act against the authorities in place testifying, in particular, of a foreign occupation (example: military branches of the WILL GO, resistant FFI, of FLN, etc).

The military forces are made up:

• of personnel under contract, volunteers who have chooses to enlist for one limited duration;
• of personnel of career (it acts in general of the executives, Sous-officiers and Officiers;
• of personnel enlisted by the State, within the framework of the Conscription, they carry out then a Military service obligatory;
• possibly, in the event of disorders and of conflict, personnel enlisted under the constraint.

Generally, the individual rights of a soldier in time of war are very limited, the refusal to obey or the desertion is rigorously punished including in a professional army or conscripts. Many groups armed in Africa, Asia and South America integrate children as from 6 years. One estimates the number of those at 300.000.

Functions in the army

A soldier can have an activity of ground, command or office. Indeed, the implementation of an army requires a component command (coordination of the troops) and logistics (provisioning) important. One often speaks about “level”: level of command, logistic level, operational level.

Among operational employment, one distinguishes:

• the riding : member of the Cavalry (in horse formerly, this term indicating the weapon today Armoured E)
• the Infantryman (soldier with foot): member of the Infantry
• the marine : member of the marine
• the Aviator: member of the Air force
• the Sapper, member of the military Engineering
• the Artillerist, member of the Artillery
• …

See too

• Gate: Military history

• Armed
• Nickname: Bidasse
• Defense and safety
• Theater and opera: Igor Stravinsky history of the military soldier
• Unit
• military Abbreviations
• Soldier, military Rank
• Soldier , a video game amateur
• Military architecture
• Military aviation

Simple: Military