Re:Thousands of California soldiers forced to repay enlistme...
by return0 on Sunday October 23, 2016 @06:36AM
(#12772908)
My understanding is that the US has a professional army. Why are they called "volunteers"? Over here, a volunteer is someone who voluntarily joins earlier than required to begin his mandatory army service. People who join a job are all volunteers of course, but that's not remarkable.
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Re:Thousands of California soldiers forced to repay enlistme...
by dogma1138 on Sunday October 23, 2016 @12:28PM
(#12774164)
There are two types of military service compulsory and voluntary hence they are called volunteers.
Compulsory involves conscription or a draft, I'm not sure how the "jail or army" thing is classified but since you are given a choice it's technically stelly voluntary.
The "professional" classification of the army doesn't mean it's voluntary professional means that you can be a career soldier and you are paid for doing so even if you are drafted, conscripts on the other hand are not paid other than a small stipend.
That said once you sign up the contract this isn't a job, you can't quit, you can't "call in sick", can't say no to anything, you are effectively forced to give up certain rights for the duration of the contract.