21st Century U.S. Military Manuals: Ministry in Combat Marine Corps Field Manual (Value-Added Professional Format Series)

Part of our value-added professional format series, the Ministry in Combat Marine Corps Field Manual (FMFM 3-61) sets forth the doctrine, procedures, and policies that provide a comprehensive program of religious ministry integrating the roles of the chaplain and his assistant in combat.

This manual presents operational principles for sound function in a combat environment including low intensity conflict, discusses casualty ministry concepts, addresses related logistical subjects, and presents a ministry in combat training model.

Representatives of the clergy have accompanied troops into battle and provided a ministry of religion in the midst of human turmoil dating back even before the time of Caesar's legions. Ministry to the troops in combat is the primary rationale for clergy in uniform. It is in the context of battle that the unique need for military chaplains, providing for the free exercise of religion, finds its greatest justification. Throughout history; members of the clergy have quietly provided for the spiritual nurture of warriors. The effects of battle on the human psyche. require the addressing of a spiritual dimension. General Al Gray wrote, "Any view of the nature of war would hardly be accurate or complete without consideration of the effects of danger, fear, exhaustion, and privation on the men who must do the fighting . . . . Any doctrine or theory of war that neglects these aspects ignores the greater part of the nature of war." Chaplains provide the Marine Corps with a primary resource for dealing with human and spiritual dimensions in combat. How that resource responds is the subject of this manual. It builds on the lessons of the past learned from chaplains who have ministered to warriors in a variety of wartime settings. The manual is a direct response to the words of Captain A. Wayne Riggs, Chaplain Corps, USN (Ret) who said, "We cannot wait until we're there (in combat) to start thinking about what we'll do, how we'll respond, what word we will speak to sustain the weary!"

As a bonus, this reproduction includes FM-1, The Army Field Manual, a capstone manual containing the vision for the Army - sold separately for $5.99. FM 1 establishes the fundamental principles for employing Landpower. The most important of these are the Army's operational concept and the fundamentals that support it. They form the foundation for all Army doctrine. All Soldiers should understand and internalize them. FM 1 describes the American profession of arms, the Army's place in it, and what it means to be a professional Soldier.

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