A A 15th century cannon Ingvar Tjostheim Shutterstock com 12
WHAT IS AN ARMY building bridges and entrenchments medical units administrative troops mechanized units to replace cavalry transportation and commu nication units and explosives and munitions experts The number of such backup or sup port units has tended to increase as warfare has become more sophisticated CONSCRIPTION Conscription is the compulsory enrollment for service in a country's armed forces It has existed at least since the Egyptian Old Kingdom in the 27th century BCE It usually takes the form of selective service rather than universal conscription The latter generally refers to compulsory military service by all able bodied men between certain ages though a few countries notably Israel have also drafted women In the 19th century Prussia's system of building up a large standing army through conscription became the model for compet ing European powers During the American Civil War both the federal government and the Confederacy instituted a draft but the U S did not use it again until entering World War I in 1917 Like the U S Britain abandoned conscription at the end of World War Ibut reverted to it when World War II threatened Britain retained the draft until 1960 In the United States although peacetime conscription on a selective basis was ended in 1973 as part of a program to establish an all volunteer military service registration for a future draft if needed was reinstituted in 1980 13
THE HISTORY OF ARMIES AROUND THE WORLD Recruitment for armies takes different forms Soldiers may be volunteers conscripts or mercenaries Volunteers fight willingly usually for a cause or country Conscripts are drafted by their country to serve in its armed forces Mercenaries serve for pay They are not necessarily citizens of the country they fight for CoMMAND STRUCTURES The command structure of armies has under gone considerable change in the course of centuries The earliest armies followed a single leader either a tribal chief or king As nations grew in size and armies became larger it was necessary to divide command among officers of whom generals were the highest rank Officers some of whom were professional soldiers normally came from the wealthiest class in a society They alone had the money to pay soldiers buy weapons and supply horses for war In the 21st century with the spread of both democratic and socialist types of gov ernment permanent officer classes based on wealth or heredity have tended to dis appear Except in states that have military
WHAT IS AN ARMY dictatorships the army is kept under the control of elected civilian officials Officers are promoted from within the ranks or are trained at military schools Command structures of modern armies vary somewhat The officer ranking sys tem discussed here is based on that of the United States Army as it has developed since World War II All army personnel are ranked according to level from the lowest level privates to the highest levelſ generals Above privates there are three levels of officers noncom missioned officers warrant officers and commissioned officers The difference between noncommissioned officers and commissioned officers is one of training and also of authority Commissioned offi cers are graduates of military academies or of officer training schools Additionally those trained in certain professional fields may be directly commissioned as officers to serve in the Army Medical Department the Army Judge Advocate General Corps or the Army Chaplain Corps Noncommissioned officers include cor porals and sergeants There are several ranks of sergeants including staff sergeant master sergeant and command sergeant major The 15
