Military Wiki
Military Wiki
Demob redirects here. For the television series, see TV series. For the British punk rock band see band. See also D Mob.
WWII South African demob papers (front)

Demob papers issued to a South African sailor in February 1946

WWII South African demob papers (reverse)

Back page of demob papers issued to a South African sailor in February 1946

Demobilization or demobilisation (see spelling differences) is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and military force will not be necessary. The opposite of demobilization is mobilization. Forceful demobilization of a defeated enemy is called demilitarization.

In the final days of World War II, for example, the United States Armed Forces developed a demobilization plan which would discharge soldiers on the basis of a point system that favoured length and certain types of service. The British armed forces were demobilised according to an 'age-and-service' scheme.[1]

The phrase demob happy refers to demobilization and is broadly applied to the feeling of relief at imminent release from a time-serving burden, such as a career.[2] In the Russian language it is known as dembel and has become a certain tradition in the Soviet and post-Soviet Armed Forces. A United States equivalent is "short-timer's disease", comparable to "senioritis" among United States high-school students.

See also[]

References[]

  1. See Alan Allport, Demobbed. Coming Home after the Second World War, Yale University Press, 2009.
  2. Demob
All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at Demobilization and the edit history here.