A Field Guide to Military Hand Signals

To maintain surprise and avoid enemy detection, soldiers often operate in silence.

They still have to communicate.

How do they communicate their message without giving away their position?

Hand signals are used to communicate.

In the last century, the military developed hand signals to allow their members to communicate while in stealth mode. Hand signals are also used to communicate when the noise level is too high for the comrades' ears to hear.

During WWII, the U.S. Army developed its first uniform hand signals. The vocabulary of the visual language grew over time. The Army was the first to develop hand signals. Other branches followed suit. The latest hand signals of the U.S. Army can be found in TC 3-21.60. Many of them are used for different situations, such as patrol, convoy management, ground-to air communication, etc.

Harrison Anderson is a former Green Beret and fellow Okie who served 12 years in the Army. He is now a retired Colonel in the Army Reserves, and he's finishing his business studies at OU. ).

Guide to Military Hand Signals

Even if you don't find yourself trying to sneak by Charlie in Vietnam, knowing a few military signals can be helpful for civilians.

Harrison said, "Hand signs can be useful if you need to remain quiet while hunting."

You can also use them if you are not a hunter. For example, when you play capture the flag or paintball with your brothers, or try to avoid being discovered by a horde baby-eating Barbarians in the event of the apocalypse. They're also cool to have.

Here are some basic military hand signals.

Numbers

The Army developed a system that allows soldiers to use only one hand when indicating numbers.

The hand signals are simple, with each number being represented by one finger. When you reach 6-9 you extend the number of fingers that you are adding to 5. For example, two fingers is 5 + 2, or 7. Closed raised fist equals zero.

Useful patrol hand signals

Slow down. Slow down.

Halt. Raise your palm forward and raise your hand to signal someone to stop.

Freeze. Make a fist instead of the usual halt signal. Freeze is a signal that tells someone not to only stop but also to remain still to avoid being detected.

Stop, Look, Listen, Smell. Put your hand open behind your ear and tell your crew that they should pay attention to the environment.

Assemble. Raise your hand vertically, palm facing up, and create a circle. This is the signal to use when you want your friends to gather around you and talk about business.

Double time. This signal will tell your crew that they need to get moving. This is a fun thing to do. You can do it by pumping your fist as if you were trying to make a trucker blow his horn.