The Separatists are capable of producing droids far faster than we can make clones. If we are going to win this war and retake lost territory at a faster pace, we're going to need to rely on our citizens who are willing to fight.
—Rahm Kota to Chancellor Palpatine
The Civilian Volunteer Coprs, also known as the CVC, was a military organization comprised of non-clone soldiers of the Republic Military. It was formed sometime after the outbreak of the Clone Wars with many patriotic citizens of the Galactic Republic who wanted to enlist in defense of the Republic against the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Civilian volunteers mainly served as part of the Republic Army while others would be pilots for the Republic Starfighter Corps and the Republic Navy.
History[]
Formation[]
At the start of the Clone Wars in 22 BBY, the Galactic Republic was able to muster up the needed clone troops of the Grand Army of the Republic in order to combat the vast droid forces of the Separatist Droid Army which began invading various worlds and expanding Separatist territory across the galaxy. While the clone soldiers were effective, they were much smaller compared to the size of the Separatist droids and vastly outnumbered the clone soldiers. Jedi Generals such as Rahm Kota, Bardan Jusik, and Djinn Altis expressed their complaints and issues with the clone soldiers and requested that civilian volunteers be allowed to join the ranks of the Republic Military in order to boost up the number of personnal and try to get on equal footing with the Separatist droids in terms of numbers.
Palpatine eventually agreed to the offer and using his charisma and the promotion of nationalism across the Republic, convinced the Galactic Senate to allow the creation of a volunteer corps within the Republic Military and so the Civilian Volunteer Corps was founded in 22 BBY a couple of weeks after the First Battle of Geonosis following the passing of the Civilian Volunteer Act. Following the announcement, millions of combat ready and patriotic Republic citizens signed up and began their training in order to defend the Republic against the Confederacy. While many within the senate approved of the decision, many senators such as Bail Organa and Mon Mothma believed that the Chancellor was using the volunteer corps as his own personal army due to the cult of personality that surrounded him and the corps. Most Jedi were reluctant but acceptaning of the corps while some, such as Kota, welcomed the new unit and had their entire squads made up of civilian volunteers.
Early Operations[]
The first known operations of the Civilian Volunteer Corp occured sometime around seven weeks after the Battle of Geonosis on the Outer Rim world of Christophsis which was under siege by Separatist forces. The vast majority of the Outer Rim Territories along with many parts of the Mid Rim had already fallen to the Separatists and the Republic was desperate to save what little they could in the region along with the rest of the Mid Rim. On Christophsis, many natives had signed up for the volunteer corps and put up a moderate resistance effort against the Separatist forces invading their planet, but could only last so long before they were overrun and called in for Republic help. Republic ground forces eventually made it to the planet's surface, but were quickly bogged down by the Separatist troops who managed to find out about ambush plans and defenses thanks to spies such as Slick and Christophsian volunteers managed to wage a guerilla war against the Separatist droids to relieve the clone soldiers of the pressue that they were facing.
Other volunteers were sent in and they were able to relieve pressure off of the clone soldiers by fighting Separatist droids among the ruins of the cities that were heavily damaged and nearly destroyed by Separatist bombers. The volunteers were able to get the upper hand as the battle droids weren't able to fight a guerilla war and had to divide their forces to keep the insurgents supressed. After some time however, the Separatists were defeated and withdrew from Christophsis leaving the world in the hands of the Republic and proving that the volunteer corps was a reliable fighting force. The next known battle was on Ordonia which fell into civil war when pro-Separatist insurgents rebelled against the pro-Republic government. The Ordonian military was split between the two warring factions and so, Ordonian citizens signed up for the volunteer corps and fought to keep their planet in the Republic. The knowledge of the landscape and terrain by the Ordonian volunteers was critical as the clone troopers were unable to handle such conditions as they weren't knowledgable on Ordonia's geography which was used by the Ordonian Nationalists which halted Republic advancements leaving the native volunteers as the only option for the Republic forces left to use if they were to push forward, especially in the southern parts of the planet.
Organization[]
The Civilian Volunteer Corps was comrpised of various militias and military organizations from all across the member worlds of the Republic. Each unit was divided into various groups called corps and each corps varied in size and strength as well as what race it was made up of. Most of the early corps were made up of human soldiers and some from alien species capable of understanding and speaking Galactic Basic Standard. As the war progressed however, more and more members of various species joined in and the Republic had to choice but to accept them as by the second year of the war, the Republic armies were stretched thin across the galaxy. Each corps was lead by a field commander and/or general but would often ahve Jedi generals and commanders assigned to them just like regular clone platoons. Republic High Command had the ultimate authority over all volunteer corps as well as the Ministry of Defense and the Supreme Commander.
Recruitment and Training[]
Members of the volunteer corps would join by enlisting at recruitment centers and pass an inspection. If they passed, then the volunteers would be sent on various Republic worlds in the Core Worlds and the Colonies that contained military bases and training centers for new recruits and they would begin training there. Training for volunteers was similiar to that of clone troopers and simulated battles were also common as well. After training was complete, the volunteers would then be sent to parts of the galaxy to regroup with other Republic forces for either invasions of planets under Separatist control, defense of Republic-held worlds, or to other bases to be put in reserve and on standby.
A volunteer corps was typically formed either by Republic military officials grouping in volunteers together or from pro-Republic militias and groups from either Republic worlds or planets that were liberated during the war as well as loyalist factions that were integrated when different planets were being liberated by the Republic. Upon formation, the corps would be assigned a commander which was chosen from which volunteer was the best soldier and most capable leader while other commanders would maintain their positions if their corps was an already existing organization.
Resources and Equipment[]
Volunteers would be given military gear and armor that was from their original homeworld and varied depending on where they came from. As the war intensified however, the plicy changed and volunteers were instead given modified versions of clone combat armor instead along with similiar helmets to clone troopers to. Around the middle stages of the war, most of the volunteer combat armor was modeled after the combat armor worn by Republic soldiers from back in the Old Republic era. Weaponry also varied upon volunteers depending on their origin as well as the location of their bases and/or training centers but the standard issue weapon was the same with the clone troopers being the DC-15A blaste rifle and the DC-15s blaster carbine. Other weapons were also used by volunteer soldiers as well and varied from either preference or background of each volunteer soldier.