I'm reading news on yahoo. One piece of news says:

...

U.S. President Bush's decision to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq will put further pressure on the National Guard, whose 458,000 citizen-soldiers have a dual mandate to protect the nation both at home and abroad. The plan would 'remobilize' Guard troops to help support troop rotations.

...

I tried to look it up in my dictionary but faild to find the entry. So, is it a new term? And with due respect, what's citizen soldier? What's the difference between "citizen soldier" and "soldier"(or regular soldier)? Is a citizen soldier a civilian employed by the army temporarily so that after duty finished he/she can go home?

Thanks,

Callithump

The first time I heard this phrase was in Stephen Ambrose's book of the same name. (LINK) I think the term as used by Ambrose is meant to distinguish temporary combatants from "professional soldiers," men (and now women) who have joined the military as a career. The latter would include NCOs and commissioned officers, and especially graduates of military academies, although some of those do leave the service promptly upon fulfilling their required service.

The cadre of professional soldiers is often referred as "Regular Army." For example, on the television program M*A*S*H, Col. Potter was Regular Army as he had been a solider as far back as WWI when he was in the cavalry. Hawkeye and Trapper were most definitely NOT Regular Army. Citizen soldiers may be either draftees or volunteers, and it is understood that when hostilities are over they will return to civilian life and resume other careers.

I think it also applies to members of the National Guard.

(emphasis added)
The Army National Guard (ARNG) is one component of The Army (which consists of the Active Army, the Army National Guard and the Army Reserves.) The Army National Guard is composed primarily of traditional Guardsmen -- civilians who serve their country, state and community on a part-time basis (usually one weekend each month and two weeks during the summer.) Each state, territory and the District of Columbia has its own National Guard, as provided for by the Constitution of the United States.

The National Guard

calli: Because it gets only about 50,000 Ghits but essentially no hits at all in the usu online dictionaries, I would have called "remobilize" a neologism

Until I checked with the Google News timeline, where I found it going back to 1914

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=r...943&lnav=dt

So I tentatively conclude there's nothing special about it since you can add "re" to almost any verb

But here's something of interest

http://timawa.net/forum/index.php?topic=383.msg2667

I think Alex's definition is a little off of the commonly understood use. Mostly it refers to the National Guard and the Army Reserve as well as the reserves of other branches of the armed forces, people who spend most of their time as civilians but who spend some time, as Jackie pointed out, in some service related business. Perhaps Alex's definition was common in other times, such as WWII, when many people joined the army for the duration with no intent on making the military a career. Nowadays, many people will join the military for various benefits that were not available to them otherwise, for example, paying for college education. As long as they are full-time regular army they are not called citizen-soldiers.