After working away with different nationalities i was suprised to hear that lots still have a mandatory 3 year military service they have to do when 18. I know that Israel and Romania have this but does anybody know which other countries still have this?
Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea…i think…
(well i know singapore has for sure…)
yay…first post ever!
Well, Sweden has. Sort of.
Technically, every male has mandatory military service and could be called upon to serve the country between 18-47. All the population is supposed to help with civil defense 18-65. Service is from seven months (pfc) to 18 months (those picked for ofgficers training.
However, the country can’t afford this, so very few actually do their service. When I was the age, since ‘everyone’ had to do it, there were a lot of pointless jobs in the armed services, just so that every young male could do it. I myself got to be a weather observer :snorts:. I held a gun a total of three times during my stretch. Fired it once.
I’m sure others will come along and tell what the deal is in their countries.
One of the Scandinavian countries does. Finland, I think.
Greece does too, although a non-military alternative is available for registered conscientious objectors. Cite.
Same for Germany. Either 8 months military service or 10 months in a hospital or something like that for conscientious objectors.
Mexico.
One year.
Required of all males ages 18-40 and must attend for one year military training on Saturday’s.
For more information:
Secretaria de Defensa Nacional
XicanoreX
To Add to my response.
Mexican government does not recognize legally conscientious objectors and I am not aware of what is done to those who request such.
XicanoreX
Mandatory military service (1 year) was suspended three years ago in France. The last draftees (military service delayed for various reasons) ended their service at the beginning of this year.
By the way, the german government asked the french one not to supress it, since it wasn’t setting a good example for their public opinion.
AFAIK, there’s still a mandatory military service in Italy.
South Korea currently requires all able-bodied males over the age of 18 to complete 26 months (for Army, Marines) of manadatory active-duty military service in the Armed Forces. If you want to serve in the ROK Air Force, Navy, or become an Officer, your military obligation is longer.
For those with slight physical impairments – such as astigmatism, asthma, scoliosis, heart murmur, etc. – their mandatory service is required in the Riot Police, which is much more dangerous in many ways than serving in the Army, given the viciousness of demonstrations here.
Typically, most men try to complete their obligation either right after graduating high school, or after their sophomore year in college.
Many Korean young men regard their time in service as a total waste of time, as they are paid a pittance for their time (a ROK private makes 13,000 won per month. i.e., $10.83 per month); receives NO benefits (ROK soldiers used to be able to win civil service points for their service, but this was eliminated at the behest of radical Korean feminists in 1999). Also, many Korean men complain that during their service, they learn nothing, as the Korean Army continues to be very much an officer-driven Army.
Another option for military service, however, is to serve as a KATUSA soldier, which while no different in terms of pay or benefits (still under Korean command), KATUSAs do live and train alongside U.S. soldiers in U.S. Army facilities, which are considered better and more professional than those available in the ROK Army.
Also, KATUSAs, which are under the Korean Army and initially trained by the Korean Army, but are paid and trained by the U.S. Army as well, are highly competitive positions assigned by test-based scores from standardized KATUSA English proficiency exams. This avenue of service is considered better, as KATUSAs invariably come out of the service two years later with better English skills than their ROK counterparts.
And yet another option available is to get a deferal for education. Then, when you complete your overseas course of study, you can return home to The Land of the Morning Calm with your MBA in hand and give the military the benefit of your Harvard education by serving in industry for five years as a technical conscript – i.e., working in industry for poverty wages.
Most smart people, however, would rather play out their time as a KATUSA. The rationale is that at least they can get English skills. As you can imagine though, because everybody is thinking this way, it is highly competitive, and usually only those who attend upper echelon universities are able to qualify on the KATUSA English exam.
North Korea has mandatory military service for 10 years, although some men apparently only serve 5. I think that defines the upper end of the scale.
Denmark did have mandatory service at one time, I think. I’m uncertain if they still do. But it may have been for only one year. It could include being a palace guard!
According to this site:
Unlcear which of these requires all males to serve, but this would be a good list to start with.
Denmark still has mandatory service, but only about 1 in 3 serves. It is (quite literally) a lottery - all males go take the physical when they turn 18. Those deemed fit for service take a number, and the powers-that-be then assign people in ascending numerical order.
The duration of service ranges from 8 months (supply troops etc.) to a theoretical maximum of 24 months (Sergeant of Palace Guards/Mounted Palace Guards - in practice, people will have to volunteer several times to end up in one of these coveted slots).
As it happens, a lot of young men volunteer (I did), which gains you the modest advantage of stating where you’d prefer to serve. There’s generally speaking volunteers for the Palace Guards and other high-profile units, whereas more “boring” units tend to have a higher percentage of non-volunteers. Surprisingly, quite a few take to the military life and decide to make a career of it - more, of course, just perform their duties and return to civilian life.
It’s not considered a huge burden by most - it is shared by many, it is considered a slight advantage on your resume, and there’s very much a “rite of passage” attitude towards the entire thing. Personally speaking, I found it pretty enriching - the unit was a cross-section of society, from the 7th-grade dropout druggie to the future doctors & lawyers, and it is something to behold to see people from such diverse backgrounds find common ground and actually earn each other’s respect.
Norway requires all males to give about one year of national service. Alternative service is available for conscientious objectors, though they have to serve a bit longer. This is supposed to discourage people from applying for alternative service just because sleeping in a tent and carrying a rifle doesn’t appeal to them. For similar reasons, if a young man wants to join the navy rather than the army, he’ll have to serve a few months longer; the navy is seen as a more prestigious service and the longer time period is supposed to discourage casual applicants.
In practice, there are more young men of age to serve than there are positions available for them to fill, so the criteria for exemption have been loosened up over the last decade or so. That’s also why talk of extending the service to all young people, women too, has never gotten anywhere in parliament.
Service can be a lot of things. My husband served in the air force, but he had a desk job at the Defense Research Institute and was rarely anywhere near an airplane. One of his brothers was a palace guard, and the other was granted a medical exemption.
After finishing this service, you can be called in for a “refresher” course every three years or so until you’re 44. Some will also be drafted into the Home Guards (it’s also possible to volunteer for this, of course), and be required to do one week of training every year until their 44th birthday. Any man who has finished his training could in theory be called up in the event of a national emergency - and Home Guards definitely would.
kmg365 - I heard from a Korean friend of mine that those who have a tattoo of any sort on their body are exempted (or maybe “booted” is a better word) from military duty, could you verify this? I presume lots of young men would flock to tattoo parlours when they hit 18 in order to avoid military service.
Brazil has a 10 month to 1 year military service for males of 18. As in Sweden, our armed Forces are unable to take all the young men in the service, so in practice it is almost a volunteer job.
Practically only those who want to are conscripted.
Some more information on Norway’s national service:
You serve 18 months but this includes “refresher” courses.
(Alternative service is 18 months because they don’t have any refresher course).
Different jobs have different length of service, the usual is 12 months, but the home guard have 6 months( because they have alot more refresher courses later) as do some other jobs. A few have 18 months, IIRC they are places like Coastal fortresses and radar stations that are always manned and would not accept new people in a war situation because of infiltration.
These days almost noone gets called in for refresher course except for the home guard.
Regarding tattoos, I understand this is the situation In China, where having any kind of tattoo disqualifies you from Military service. Back in the olden days Tattoos were considered a health hazard, and frowned upon by the communists. Perhaps this is the grain of truth.
Of course China does not have conscription/the draft, In fact arbitrary rules like the tattoo clause are constantly added to keep people OUT of the army so the situation is a little different
gb, yes, it is true (cite). However, it is not as simple as that. Not having an honorable discharge certificate from the Korean military is tantamount to career suicide if you want live and work in TLOTMC (The Land of the Morning Calm).
Major Korean companies don’t want to hire men who haven’t completed their military service. Also, FTR, the tatoos in question that are being used by draft-dodgers are not the itsy-bitsy tatoo on your bicep or your ass most Americans are familiar with.
We’re talking major, full-body “Yakuza-style” back tatoos, which in Korea, as well as in Japan, denote mafia and gangsta membership.
For those guys who choose this route, they’re basically making themselves unemployable and social outcasts for the following reasons: 1) The Korean gov’t fully recognizes tatooing as a draft-dodging tactic and arrests “offenders” accordingly; 2) It is impossible to get a job in government or in major Korean companies without a military discharge certificate; 3) Koreans do not want to hire or associate with gang members, which a full-body tatoo invariably denotes; and 4) Tatoo parlors are not a common sight in Korea. In order to be a licensed tatoo artist in Korea, you have to have a medical license. Therefore all the places where you can get tatoos in Korea, operate surreptitiously and work hand-in-glove with the mafia, as such tatoos are their badge of rank (they only give full-body tatoos to members or prospective members).