The White Guard, officially known as the Civil Guard, was a voluntary militia, part of the Finnish Whites movement, that emerged victorious over the socialist Red Guards in the Finnish Civil War of 1918. They were generally known as the "White Guard" in the West due to their opposition to the "communist" Red Guards. In the White Army of Finland many participants were recruits, draftees and German-trained Jägers – rather than part of the paramilitary. The central organization was named the White Guard Organization, and the organization consisted of local chapters in municipalities.
In the United States and Canada, the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) is a corps of trained amateur radio operator volunteers organized to assist in public service and emergency communications. It is organized and sponsored by the American Radio Relay League and the Radio Amateurs of Canada.
The Swedish Women's Voluntary Defence Organization is an independent auxiliary defence organization in Sweden. The organisation is part of the Swedish Total Defence (Totalförsvaret), the national defence strategy of Sweden.
The Home Guard – National Security Forces is a military reserve force of the Swedish Armed Forces. It was formally established on May 29, 1940, during World War II upon popular demand. While originally composed of former militia groups, today it comprises half of the Swedish Army, thus constituting the basis of the territorial defence of Sweden.
The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary is the uniformed, non-military volunteer component of the United States Coast Guard. Congress established the unit on 23 June 1939, as the United States Coast Guard Reserve. On February 19, 1941, the entity was renamed the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. The Auxiliary's purpose is to bolster all USCG undertakings both at sea and in the sky, with the exception of tasks necessitating "direct" law enforcement or military actions. As of 2022, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary boasted around 21,000 members.
Auxiliary police, also called volunteer police, reserve police, assistant police, civil guards, or special police, are usually the part-time reserves of a regular police force. They may be unpaid volunteers or paid members of the police service with which they are affiliated; There is no consistent international definition.
Auxiliaries are support personnel that assist the military or police but are organised differently from regular forces. Auxiliary may be military volunteers undertaking support functions or performing certain duties such as garrison troops, usually on a part-time basis. Unlike a military reserve force, an auxiliary force does not necessarily have the same degree of training or ranking structure as regular soldiers, and it may or may not be integrated into a fighting force. Some auxiliaries, however, are militias composed of former active duty military personnel and actually have better training and combat experience than their regular counterparts.
The Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) is a United States Department of Defense sponsored program, established as a separately managed and operated program by the United States Army and the United States Air Force. The United States Navy-Marine Corps program closed in 2015. The program is a civilian auxiliary consisting primarily of licensed amateur radio operators who are interested in assisting the military with communications on a regional and national level when access to traditional forms of communication may no longer be available. The MARS programs also include active duty, reserve, and National Guard units; and Navy, Marine Corps units.
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigned by a government agency, informally adopted by individuals or organizations, or even cryptographically encoded to disguise a station's identity.
In times of crisis and natural disasters, amateur radio is often used as a means of emergency communication when wireline, cell phones and other conventional means of communications fail.
2182 kHz is a radio frequency designed exclusively for distress calls and related calling operations in the maritime service. It is equivalent to a wavelength of 137.4 metres.
A military reserve force is a military organization whose members (reservists) have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve forces are generally considered part of a permanent standing body of armed forces, and allow a nation to reduce its peacetime military expenditures and maintain a force prepared for war. During peacetime, reservists typically serve part-time alongside a civilian job, although most reserve forces have a significant permanent full-time component as well. Reservists may be deployed for weeks or months-long missions during peacetime to support specific operations. During wartime, reservists may be kept in service for months or years at a time, although typically not for as long as active duty soldiers.
Citizen Corps is a program under the Department of Homeland Security, founded in 2002 as part of the USA Freedom Corps, that provides training for the population of the United States to assist in the recovery after a disaster or terrorist attack. Each local Citizen Corps Council partners with organizations, volunteers and businesses to organize responders, volunteers and professional first responders for an efficient response so efforts are not wasted by being duplicated. By training in Incident Command, volunteers know whom to report to and how the incident is organized. This prevents sites from being inundated by untrained and unprepared personnel preventing operation. Citizen Corps also works in conjunction with the Corporation for National and Community Service in promoting national service opportunities for promoting homeland security needs.
The Civil Defence Corps (CDC) was a civilian volunteer organisation established in Great Britain in 1949 to mobilise and take local control of the affected area in the aftermath of a major national emergency, principally envisaged as being a Cold War nuclear attack. By March 1956, the Civil Defence Corps had 330,000 personnel. It was stood down in Great Britain in 1968, although two Civil Defence Corps still operate within the British Isles, namely the Isle of Man Civil Defence Corps and the unrelated Civil Defence Ireland in the Republic of Ireland. Many other countries maintain a national Civil Defence Corps, usually having a wide brief for assisting in large scale civil emergencies such as flood, earthquake, invasion, or civil disorder.
The National Association of Naval Volunteer Corps, commonly known as the Swedish Auxiliary Naval Corps is a Swedish auxiliary defence organization that cooperate with the Swedish Armed Forces.
The Swedish Volunteer Air Corps is a voluntary defence organization of some 2,400 members (2013) distributed throughout Sweden. The pilots receive their initial training either through privately funded pilot licenses, through the Armed Forces or with bigger schools. Pilots in the FFK perform on a voluntary basis, assignment for Swedish authorities and the Armed Forces. FFK's headquarters are located at Stockholm Västerås Airport.
Major General Bo Göran Roland Ekenberg né Arvidsson is retired a Swedish Army officer. His senior commands include commanding officer of the Eastern Army Division (1999–2000) and the Chief of Home Guard (2005–2018).
The Marine Corps Cyber Auxiliary is a volunteer organization designed to attract cybersecurity experts in aiding United States Marine Corps cyberspace readiness.
The Swedish Air Force Volunteers Association, commonly known as the Air Force Volunteers is a Swedish voluntary defence organization formed in 1962 for both men and women according to the ordinance on voluntary defence activities - whose activities are to serve the Swedish Armed Forces and society's other crisis preparedness. It includes i.a. defence information as well as recruitment and training of voluntary defence organization personnel and youths.
