Every Arm-and-Hand Signal in TC 3-21.60 — Not Forty-Three of Them

The “SWAT hand signals” chart reposted everywhere traces back to a single 2016 RECOIL OFFGRID post that names no manual, no agency and no author. The article’s own caveat is the citable fact: “there’s no universally-accepted standard for these hand signals, and the signals may vary from one organization to the next.” There is no national US law-enforcement hand-signal standard — departments write their own; the LAPD issued its own Tactical Hand and Arm Signals training bulletin as recently as October 2020. What actually exists is us army hand signals not forty-three: the cited field manual below, not the uncredited chart everyone keeps reposting.

This infographic draws from the document that does exist instead: the US Army’s TC 3-21.60, “Visual Signals” (17 March 2017), which superseded FM 21-60 (30 September 1987). It is public-release, unlimited distribution, and every signal is numbered against its own chapter and figure.

Two hands, one arm, and a stroke

Nearly every signal in TC 3-21.60 is built from two hand positions, the angle of the arm, and the part that reposted charts throw away entirely: a motion. The manual specifies strokes — “wave in large, horizontal circles,” “thrust the fist upward… several times,” “move it through a wide horizontal arc.” A still icon of a pose is not the signal; the accent colour on this sheet marks motion and nothing else.

Every signal, three sections, zero gaps

Chapter 1 splits into three sections, and this sheet completes every one of them: A, Dismounted Formations (12 of 12 — wedge, line, echelon, column and their variants), B, Patrolling (23 of 23 — movement rate, danger area, halt, freeze, take cover, enemy sightings, fire control), and C, Crew-Served Weapons (5 of 5 — the machine-gun and anti-armor team signals Chapter 1 covers on its own). Beyond Chapter 1, the sheet pulls in the handful of Chapter 2 (Ground Vehicles) and Chapter 3 (Aircraft) signals that a dismounted-to-mounted team actually gives in the field — mount, halt/stop vehicle, go around, load, and the ground-to-air and extraction calls — 9 of 56 vehicle signals and 3 of 32 aircraft signals, not the full chapters, because the rest are crew-internal or aircrew-internal signals a ground team never sends. Each signal still carries its TC 3-21.60 paragraph and figure number, so a reader can go straight to the source page.

TC 3-21.60, every arm-and-hand signal, not just forty-three

TC 3-21.60 is the only source this sheet cites, on purpose: every arm-and-hand signal here carries its own paragraph and figure number back to that manual, which is exactly what lets it go beyond the viral chart’s uncited forty-three and still be checkable line by line. Most of what circulates online calling itself us army hand signals not forty-three is a repost with no manual behind it — this sheet is us army hand signals, cited, from the actual field manual.