U.S. Army Official Combat Skills Manual

Key Chapter Title List

1. Warrior Ethos and Army Values
2. Individual Deployment Preparation and Legal Affairs
3. Combat Casualty Care and Preventive Medicine
4. Operations in Diverse Environments: Desert, Jungle, and Arctic
5. Close Quarters Combat System: Principles and Realistic Training
6. Cover, Concealment, and Camouflage Techniques
7. Construction of Combat Fortifications: From Hasty to Prepared Positions
8. Individual and Team Movement Techniques
9. Urban Operations: Movement, Building Entry, and Room Clearing
10. Individual Intelligence Awareness: Every Soldier is a Sensor
11. Essential Combat Firing and Weapons Maintenance
12. Communication Means, Procedures, and Security
13. Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape
14. Mines, Demolitions, and Breaching Procedures
15. Unexploded Ordnance and Improvised Explosive Device Disposal

Document Introduction

This manual is the authoritative combat skills training guide issued by the United States Army to all soldiers, revised and updated by Sergeant Major Matt Larsen. Its core objective is to shape every soldier into a battlefield unit possessing a resilient warrior ethos, superb tactical skills, and high adaptability to meet the increasingly complex, asymmetric, and highly dynamic challenges of modern warfare. The manual emphasizes that the boundaries between front and rear in the modern battlefield are blurred, and the forms of conflict are varied. Therefore, every soldier, regardless of their military occupational specialty, must first think and act as a warrior, mastering basic survival and combat skills.

The manual's content is extensive and rigorously structured, divided into two main parts. The first part, Warrior Ethos, focuses on philosophy and foundational preparation. It delves into the meaning of the warrior ethos embedded in the Soldier's Creed and how it drives soldiers to overcome adversity and remain loyal to their mission. This section clarifies the seven Army Values—Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage—as the behavioral foundation and emphasizes the importance of adhering to the Law of Land Warfare. Simultaneously, it details the administrative, legal, financial, and medical preparation checklist individuals must complete before deployment. Dedicated chapters discuss battlefield first aid, casualty evacuation, and maintaining combat effectiveness through personal hygiene, disease prevention, and mental health maintenance.

The second part, Soldier Combat Skills, shifts to specific tactical and technical domains, forming the practical core of the manual. The coverage is extremely broad, ranging from the systematic training principles and realistic engagement methods of close quarters combat, to the technical details of using terrain and features for cover, concealment, and personal camouflage; from the step-by-step construction standards and camouflage requirements for hasty and prepared fighting positions (including individual, two-man, and machine gun positions), to individual and team movement techniques in different terrains, and immediate reaction procedures to threats like indirect fire and flares. Addressing the increasingly important urban warfare environment, the manual dedicates a chapter to explaining movement outside buildings, entry techniques, room clearing procedures, and the selection and construction of fighting positions within urban areas.

Furthermore, the manual deeply embodies the modern operational concept that every soldier is a sensor. It teaches soldiers in detail how to observe and report enemy situations, use the SALUTE format for intelligence reporting, and emphasizes the importance of operational security. The combat firing chapter not only covers the operation of various small arms but also focuses on practical skills such as combat zeroing, malfunction clearance, and reflexive firing. The communication section systematically introduces various communication means, including radio, and their secure operating procedures. Finally, the manual also encompasses the fundamentals of Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE), as well as the identification and disposal procedures for mines, unexploded ordnance (UXO), and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), providing comprehensive knowledge support for soldiers to accomplish missions in extremely complex and dangerous environments.

This manual is not a simple list of techniques; rather, it constructs a complete training and reference system ranging from mental shaping and basic survival to advanced tactical application. It reflects the U.S. Army's systematic thinking and standardized requirements for the core competencies of individual soldiers in the modern battlefield environment, serving as an important document for studying its individual training philosophy, tactical doctrine, and battlefield adaptability.