When and by whom rec’d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This Envelope Will Be Returned to Bearer
We should certainly be armed with a Field Message Book when the crucial moment for writing a message arrives. But it so happens, especially in open warfare, that that article of equipment may have been left in the saddlebags, or have been borrowed by a friend. At any rate it is not present for duty when we want it. However, we are always able to produce a piece of paper or clothing—something upon which to write—from someone of the party present. It behooves us, then, to learn to compose a message without the aid of a blank. Indeed, this idea is contained in the latter part of the quotation from the Infantry Drill Regulations—“and the form therein adhered to.”
We are not compelled to memorize the form of the Field Message Blank. We can, however, analyse it so that it will fix itself in our memory and will be a part of what we must know in regard to the field order. And we can gain a knowledge of this form rather by adhering to the field message blank than by departing from it. Yet we need not know its entire form but simply what contents are necessary and what order they must have.
In the first place the field message may be divided into three parts:
The Heading,
The Body,
The Ending.
The Heading should contain:
The Name of Sending Detachment,
The Location of Sending Detachment (Place),
The Date,
The Hour of Issue,
The Number of the Message.
For example, the whole heading would appear something like this: