U.S. Army Field Manuals are published by the United States Army's Army Publishing Directorate. As of 27 July, 2007, some 542 field manuals were in use.^[1] They contain detailed information and how-tos for procedures important to soldiers serving in the field. They are usually available to the public at low cost or free electronically. The United States Army is the largest and oldest branch of the armed forces of the United States. ... A how-to is an informal, often short, description of how to accomplish some specific task. ...

Use of the US Field Manuals

Lately, most of the US Field Manuals have all been submitted to the public domain ^[2]. This has given people the possibility of learning from them. Especially for people training survival skills (e.g. survivalists, adventurous travellers and tourists) and poor people (e.g. subsistence farmers in the third world), the US Field Manuals are providing a valuable resource. The presence of the document in the public domain has also allowed terrorists to use the manual for training purposes. ^[3][4] The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... Survival skills are skills that may help one to survive dangerous situations (such as storms or earthquakes), or in dangerous places (such as the desert, the mountains, and the jungle). ... A survivalist is a person who anticipates a potential disruption in the continuity of local, regional or worldwide society, and takes steps to survive in the resulting unpredictable situation. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A tourist boat travels the River Seine in Paris, France Tourism can be defined as the act of travel for the purpose of recreation, and the provision of services for this act. ... Look up Poor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... // Like most farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, this Cameroonian man cultivates at the subsistence level. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

List of selected field manuals

• FM 1 - "establishes the fundamental principles for employing landpower." Together, it and FM 3-0 are considered by the U.S. Army to be the "two capstone doctrinal manuals." ^[5]
• FM 3-0 Operations - The operations guide "lays out the fundamentals of war fighting for future and current generations of recruits."^[1]
• FM 5-31 Boobytraps - Describes how regular demolition charges and materials can be used for victim-initiated explosive devices. This manual is no longer active, but is still frequently referenced.^{[citation needed]}
• FM 3-21.8 The Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad
• FM 21-76 US Army Survival Manual- Used to train survival techniques
• FM 34-52 Intelligence Interrogation - Used to train interrogators in conducting effective interrogations while conforming with US and international law. Recently updated to include a 10-page classified section as a result of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal.
• FM 21-20 - covers the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT)
• FM 27-10 (2005) - Cornerstone of rules of war for the US Military.
• FM 21-76-1 Survival, Escape, and Rescue
• FM 3-24 (Counterinsurgency)
• FM 3-25.150 (Combatives)
• FM 3-21.5 (Drill and Ceremony)

The US Army Field Manual on Interrogation, sometimes known by the code FM 34-52, is a 177 page manual describing to military interrogators how to conduct effective interrogations while conforming with US and international law. ... A typical classified document. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse Beginning in 2004, accounts of abuse, torture, rape[1] and homicide[2][3] of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (also known as Baghdad Correctional Facility) came to public attention. ... Soldier conducting the push-ups during an APFT The Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) is designed to test the muscular strength/endurance and cardiovascular respiratory fitness of soldiers in the US Army. ... Counter-insurgency is the combatting of insurgency, by the government (or allies) of the territory in which the insurgency takes place. ... Combatives FM 21-150 Figure 4-1, Vital Targets. ...

References

On the Media is an hour-long weekly radio program produced by New York Public Radio WNYC. It is broadcast on Sunday morning in New York City, and syndicated nationwide on other public radio stations. ...

See also

• Graphic training aids

External links

• Complete list of active field manuals at army.mil
• Full listing of Unites States Army field manuals at enlisted.info (multiple pdf files)
• Field Manuals online at globalsecurity.org
• US Army Survival Manual
• Various Field Manuals along with some "Marine Corps Warfighting Publications", the USMC equivalent to the FMs.
• What's an Army field manual? by Slate