Good Bye Tennessee

The Army's just-released update of its field manual 3-0, Operations, bids farewell to what advertising folks would call a key visual, the "Tennessee Chart." The widely used graphic uses stacked sections resembling the outline of the state of Tennessee to illustrate the Army's idea of full-spectrum operations.

Service officials decided to ditch the chart because it "inadvertently established a false dichotomy" between the requirement to prepare for major war and for smaller-scale irregular conflicts, Training and Doctrine Command chief Gen. Martin Dempsey wrote in the updated FM 0 foreword.

"In the next revision of FM 3-0, we will sharpen our language regarding full-spectrum operations," Dempsey wrote.

The manual's next iteration is scheduled for release at the annual convention of the Association of the United States Army in October.

Also new today is the Army's updated Field Manual 7-0, titled "Training Units and Developing Leaders for Full Spectrum Operations."