They’re not volunteers

In his Jan. 29 letter “Praise for the military,” Harry Lerman writes: “We have a civilian-controlled, volunteer military that is dedicated to serving our national interests.”

I couldn’t agree more that that our military greatly deserve our respect and gratitude.

I believe, however, that our military cannot be considered a “volunteer military.”

According to Webster’s new Universal Unabridged Dictionary, the most complete dictionary in United States, a person who joins the military on his own free will, and without receiving payment, profit, or valuable consideration for his services is considered to be a “volunteer.”

Rigorously speaking, our soldiers are not volunteers (as defined above) since they receive significant pay and benefits for their services.