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Personnel - FARK - Forces Armées Royales Khmères

The average Cambodian soldier was generally intensely loyal and patriotically motivated. He was good natured and normally not overly aggressive, but he responded well to capable leadership and proved to be a courageous and effective soldier. Most of the men came from rural backgrounds. About 50 percent were illiterate, and they came into the service with little or no mechanical or technical skills. Many were completely unfamiliar with rudimentary tools or simple mechanical devices and must be grounded in basic fundamentals before going on to more advanced training in the complex equipment of modern warfare.

Voluntary enlistments were open to physically qualified male citizens between the ages of 18 and 25. The term of enlistment was for 3 years for the combat arms and 6 years for the technical services; reenlistments were accepted on a year to year basis. Women could volunteer for service in the armed forces and were used extensively in the higher headquarters and the technical services. They were employed primarily in clerical duties, but they also serve as drivers, switchboard operators and parachute packers.

Military strength was maintained almost entirely on a volunteer basis. There was a conscription law, promulgated in 1954, which provided for compulsory military service by all qualified males between the ages of 21 and 35. The government rarely had to resort to conscription, however, as voluntary enlistments maintained the forces at desired levels with no difficulty. The benefits and relatively high pay offered by a military career generally served to attract more volunteers than could normally be absorbed by the services, and, as a result, the draft law was only applied in a few isolated instances involving needed specialists.

Practically, although a number of reserve cadres were trained particularly in the 1960s, the Forces Armées Royales Khmères’ (FARK) structure did not include reserve units and formations. Consequently, many of the reserve cadres, after their short period of training, simply remained in the regular force, never returning to their civilian positions in government departments. Exacerbating this failure, certain reserve cadres were given priority to assume additional civilian appointments, including provincial governors and district chiefs.

The number of men in regular military service was small in relation to the total population, amounting to about 2 percent of the able-bodied males. The withdrawal of this small number from normal civilian pursuits did not have any appreciable effect on the economy, nor does it create any manpower shortages in agriculture or industry, Any full mobilization or large-scale increase in the size of the forces would not necessarily constitute a military manpower problem, but it would be an economic drain on resources that would prove unacceptable except in the most serious emergency.

The country's military schools regularly turned out well trained junior officers, but their output was small, and the supply of professional officers rarely, if ever, met the demand. Even military academies, which had a high priority call on qualified manpower, had difficulty in obtaining candidates with the educational qualifications needed to fill their small quotas.

Officer procurement was on the basis of direct appointment, voluntary application or selection from the ranks. Over half of the candidates attended military schools; about a third were commissioned from the ranks; and the rest were given direct appointments. The number of applicants was usually below the needs of the services, and the military training schools tried to be realistic in the matter of entrance requirements. Nevertheless, they must maintain relaltively high standards, and, as a result, the required scholastic and physical qualifications tended to limit the field of applicants to well-to-do young men who had an education well above the country's average.