U.S. Army Hand-to-Hand Combat Handbook: * Training * Ground-Fighting * Takedowns and Throws * Strikes * Handheld Weapons * Standing Defense * Group Tactics: ... Weapons, Standing Defense, Group Tactics
The U.S. Army’s twenty-first century hand-to-hand combat field manual distributed to all soldiers—how to ground-fight, throw and take down the enemy, strike the enemy, use handheld weapons, and defend yourself.
The Department of the Army (DA) is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Army is the Federal Government agency within which the United States Army is organized, and it is led by the Secretary of the Army who has statutory authority 10 U.S.C. § 3013 to conduct its affairs and to prescribe regulations for its government, subject to the limits of the law, and the directions of the Secretary of Defense and the President.
The Secretary of the Army is a civilian official appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The highest-ranking military officer in the department is the Chief of Staff of the Army, who is also a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Other senior officials of the Department are the Under Secretary of the Army (principal deputy to the Secretary) and the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army (principal deputy to the Chief of Staff.)
The Department of War was originally formed in 1789 as an Executive Department of the United States, and was renamed by the National Security Act of 1947 to the Department of the Army on September 18, 1947. By amendments to the National Security Act of 1947 in 1949, the Department of the Army was transformed to its present-day status.
I picked this one up as a free Kindle deal awhile back, thinking I might learn something useful. As other reviewers have noted, this is a decidedly dated (1954) manual with less-than-ideal pictorial examples. But much of the information is still solid. Will it turn me into a lean, mean fighting machine? Err, no. But what I learned can't hurt for self-defense - and it will be a good quick look-up resource for writing fight scenes.
It seems to be a good military instruction book (not really my area) and is probably material included in a course for instructors. As such, it's a great book. When it comes to the techniques themselves, I was a bit surprised by the emphasis of ground fighting. The people demonstrating the techniques looked like they really knew what they were doing, but why use black and white pictures of wrestling combatants in camouflage uniforms?
The U.S. Army's manual for unarmed combat [FM 21-150]. It contains simple step by step procedures as well as numerous photographs demonstrating the techniques. Care should be taken if one practices the moves. Similar to the U.S. Marine version.