Talk:Soldier

Miscellaneous

Not all armies are "strictly hierarchal"; the early militia forces of the Spanish Republic in 1936/7, for example. -- Sam

"A soldier who no longer serves in the armed forces is called a veteran."

Isn't a Veteran simply a word for an experienced soldier, regardless of wether they are currently servering are not? -- User:Pod

Wider focus?

This article seems to be heavily, and nearly only about United States forces. Are we able to ad in a historical section? And I also sujest a more complete world focus for this article.

(Aus star1 (talk) 10:44, 11 May 2009 (UTC))

FART FART FArT FART FART FART FAT FAT FATA FATAFATRAR —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.62.12.190 (talk) 15:41, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Remove/Change Pictures

I don't think four different pictures are necessary to illustrate what a soldier is. And did anyone else notice that the other three pictures show soldiers doing actual work, while the US picture shows soldiers relaxing? I'm sure that they just got done doing something really difficult, but still. As an American, I don't favor the conclusions that other nations might draw from that comparison. I'd say leave the topmost picture and discard the rest. CClio333 (talk) 18:14, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

(Over-)Emphasis

I think you overdid with the STRONG tags - but I won't change it. What do the next readers think?

.~.

Marines aren't soldiers...

That's a great picture from the Vietnam conflict, but most marines don't take well to being called soldiers, any more than soldiers like being called sailors or airmen. Actually, they REALLY don't like being called soldiers; if it's one thing marines got, it's pride. If you want a picture of a U.S. servicemember on this page, you should have a member of the army. Chevychaser 09:00, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Why not use the old picture (it's my own, but that's not the reason why i advocate it's return), a picture of a norwegian soldier should be just as good as a picture of an american... Profoss 20:29, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Put it back. I don't know why it was removed. A bit of inappropriate American nationalism, I suspect. -- Necrothesp 20:53, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

A soldier=soldier, the country does not count (here)--The world salutes the Rising Star...Try to be One 12:59, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

Why does military personnel redirect to an article titled Soldier? Airmen, Sailors and Marines are also military personnel. KP Botany 22:25, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

isn't it a rank in some armies?

isn't "soldier" the lowest rank in some armies?

Well, Soldat is the lowest rank in the French Army, but it's usually translated as Private. -- Necrothesp 22:20, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Private refers to a shortening of the term Private Soldier - a private soldier was an individual, not a slave. He or she had chosen to be there - to use the term Private was/is a mark of honour. Please be aware that soldier refers to Army - airforce and Navy have their own terms, of which they are justifably proud. As one who has chosen to serve, and previously put my miserable carcass on the line, I subscribe to the Heinlein philospphy. A soldier has earned a special right/respect. Historical - roman etc details are important. links to salary may be relevant. Jacketed 13:11, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

SIX LETTER WORDS

I am a soldier and it's time to get my license plates renewed. I trying to find a really cool sounding word of six letters or less that has someting to do with soldiers or warriors. Everything I have tried so far has been taken, even words in other languages. Any suggestions??

• Reiter (german rider)
• mamluk
• djihad (Islamic holy war, but also means daily struggle for good faith)
• spatha (can cut through a skull)
• Numeri (new type of Roman auxiliary unit, serving independently in small fortresses)
• Hussit German for Hussite, a religious military group fighting everybody across Central Europe and never defeated except by Hussites

enough? Wandalstouring 19:22, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Soldiers are combatants in the armed forces

We need two articles, one Soldier (rank) which is non-officer army members and one which parallels the definition on the disambiguation page, which can include all members of the armed forces. We can provide for US terminology for soldiers, airmen, marines, and seamen with a note that in the US this term means "low-level members of the army". The important distinction here is that between soldiers and Mercenaries, Militias, Paramilitary and Guerillas and the Armed Forces article does not provide it. Brallan 16:31, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Why does this page have a load of Dutch at the bottom? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.124.16.33 (talk) 08:05, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Actually..."Soldier" refers to all armed forces personnel, officer and enlisted alike. A U.S. Army General is no less of a Soldier than a Private First Class. -user:joshuashearn —Preceding undated comment was added at 10:57, 4 February 2009 (UTC).

Etymology

"In the Russian language the world soldier is also "солдат" ("soldat"), although it is not related to the Russian word for money." Niether is it german, and in a lot of european languages the word is simply imported just from what it was meant to describe. Soldier and soldiering. Soldat.

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In the Gaelic languages (Ireland, Man and Scotland), the similar sounding word saighdear (Scottish spelling) (pron. say-jer) is from a different Latin root, sagittarius , meaning archer. Nowadays the word is used to mean soldier. 121.44.161.6 (talk) 05:42, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

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The German world "sold" don't have anything whit the word money to do it means "salary". we used the same word in Sweden for salary to Soldier but not civilians then it is "lön".Agge.se (talk) 23:03, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Number of soldiers in the world...

Just - according to official statistics could someone count the number of soldiers? The real number will be near the official - You can hide special regiment, but not a 100,000 of soldiers... So please check numbers even on wikipedia and summarize it. How much of population is serving in army? How many is just reserve? How many have that kinda of job? Just if You even see the North Korea thay had an army men for each 22 people. Even this may not include special forces/police... Even the USA have 1 for about 300 people...