career soldiers

The vast majority were not career soldiers.

But the army also has career soldiers who serve under contract, including women.

The two former career soldiers also shared their concerns about Tehran’s support for terrorism and its missile program.

Their departures underline a stark shift in relations between Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain, and the career soldiers of the armed forces that has grown more pronounced over his handling of the country’s COVID-19 pandemic.

Many defense secretaries have been veterans but not career soldiers – like Chuck Hagel, who had been a soldier in the Vietnam War in 1967 and 1968, decades before he led the Pentagon for President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2015.