science

Military volunteer

Military volunteer is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Military volunteer rather than just read about it. In short: A military volunteer (or war volunteer) is a person who enlists in military service by free will, and is not a conscript, mercenary, or a foreign legionnaire. Volunteers sometimes enlist to fight in the armed forces of a foreign country, for example during the Spanish Civil War.

Key takeaways

Military volunteer belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Military volunteer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Military volunteer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A military volunteer (or war volunteer) is a person who enlists in military service by free will, and is not a conscript, mercenary, or a foreign legionnaire. Volunteers sometimes enlist to fight in the armed forces of a foreign country, for example during the Spanish Civil War. Military volunteers are essential for the operation of volunteer militaries. Many armies, including the U.S. Army, formerly distinguished between "Important Volunteers" enlisted during a war, and "regulars" who served on long-term basis.

United States

In the United States troops raised as state militia were always described as "volunteers", even when recruited by conscription. Both US volunteers and regulars were referred to as "U.S." troops. The rank of an officer in a volunteer unit was separate from his rank (if any) as a regular, and usually higher. When the volunteer forces were disbanded at the end of the war, officers with both kinds of commission reverted to their "regular" rank. For instance, George Armstrong Custer became a brigadier general of volunteers during the American Civil War, but when the war ended, he reverted to captain. (He was later promoted to lieutenant colonel.) Volunteer rank is not the same as brevet rank.

Gallery

See also Volunteer military Volunteer Force, volunteer units in the 19th century British Empire Sar-El, national project for volunteers for Israel SAF Volunteer Corps, volunteer scheme for the Singapore Armed Forces Foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War Corpo Truppe Volontarie Wehrmacht foreign volunteers and conscripts International Freedom Battalion, units consisting of foreign fighters partaking in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Volunteering in a non-military context means working voluntarily without pay

Notes

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Military volunteer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Military volunteer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Military volunteer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Military volunteer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Military volunteer

In research: Military volunteer appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Military volunteer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Military volunteer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Military recruitment, Military sociology, Military stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Military volunteer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Military volunteer” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Military volunteer in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Military volunteer means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Military volunteer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Military volunteer in simple terms?

Why does Military volunteer matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Military volunteer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Military volunteer.