Military personnel

Military personnel or military service members are members of the state's

Most personnel are male. The proportion of female 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.,^[6] and 27% in South Africa.^[7] Many state armed forces that recruit women ban them from ground close-quarters combat roles.^[8]

Personnel who join as

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 which resocializes recruits for the unique nature of military demands.^[16][17][18]

According to an expert in military training methods, Lt Col. Dave Grossman, initial training uses four conditioning techniques: role modeling, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and brutalization.^[17] For example, throughout initial training:

• Individuality is suppressed (e.g. by shaving the head of new recruits, issuing uniforms, denying privacy, and prohibiting the use of first names);^[16][18]
• Daily routine is tightly controlled (e.g. recruits must make their beds, polish boots, and stack their clothes in a certain way, and mistakes are punished);^[18][19]
• Continuous stressors deplete psychological resistance to the demands of their instructors (e.g. depriving recruits of sleep, food, or shelter, shouting insults and giving orders intended to humiliate);^[17][18][19] and
• Frequent punishments serve to condition group conformity and discourage poor performance.^[18]
• The disciplined drill instructor is presented as a role model of the ideal soldier.^[20]

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.^[21]

Throughout their initial training, recruits are repeatedly instructed to stand, march, and respond to orders in a ritual known as foot drill, which trains recruits to obey orders without hesitation or question. According to Finnish Army regulations,^{[citation needed]} for example, the close-order drill:

• Is essential for the
  esprit de corps and cohesion for battlefield
  conditions;
• Gets the recruits used to instinctive obedience and following the orders;
• Enables large units to be marched and moved in an orderly manner; and
• Creates the basis for action in the battlefield.

In order to ensure that recruits will kill if ordered to do so, they are taught to objectify (dehumanize) their opponent as an "enemy target" to "be engaged", which will "fall when hit".^[17][22] They are also taught the basic skills of their profession, such as military tactics, first aid, managing their affairs in the field, and the use of weaponry and other equipment. Training is designed to test and improve the physical fitness of recruits, although the heavy strain on the body also leads to a rate of injury.^{[23][24][25][26]}

Terms of service

Recruits enter a binding

Minimum service period

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.

Part-time military employment, known as reserve 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 to deploy 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^[28][29]), former recruits may remain liable for compulsory return to full-time military employment in order to train or deploy on operations.

Military law

Personnel may be posted to bases in their home country or overseas, according to operational need, and may be deployed from those bases on exercises or operations 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.^[31] These regulations may be waived at times of high operational tempo, however.

Benefits

Benefits and perks of military service typically include adventurous training, subsidised accommodation, meals and travel, and a pension. Some armed forces also subsidise recruits' education before, during and/or after military service; examples are the Royal Military College Saint-Jean in Canada, the Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College in the UK, and the GI Bill arrangements in the US Conditions for participation normally apply, including a minimum period of formal military employment.

Appearance

While on duty, military personnel are normally required to wear a military uniform, normally showing their name, rank, and military branch.

See also

• Military recruitment
• Recruit training
• Women in the military
• Children in the military
• Transgender people and military service
• LGBT people and military service
• Sexual harassment in the military
• Conscientious objector
• Conscription
• Military specialism

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Military people.

• The dictionary definition of personnel at Wiktionary