Staff Sgt. Frank Gomes Jr. responds to a mock chemical attack during the mystery event at the Army Materiel Command Best Warrior Competition. The competition was held from July 25-28, 2021, at Camp Atterbury, Ind. (U.S. Army photo by Samantha Tyler)
Protection, Army Chemical Review, Engineer, and Military Police are professional-development bulletins designed to provide a forum for exchanging information and ideas within the proponent Army communities. The publications include articles by and about officers, warrant officers, enlisted Soldiers, Department of the Army civilian employees, and others. Writers may discuss training, current operations and exercises, doctrine, equipment, history, personal viewpoints, or other areas of general interest to proponents. Articles may share good ideas and lessons learned or explore better ways of doing things.
Articles should be concise, straightforward, and in the active voice. If they contain quotations or information from other attributable or copyrighted sources, the excerpts must qualify for “fair use” privileges and appropriate endnotes must be provided.
Text length should not exceed 2,000 words (about eight double-spaced pages). Shorter after action type articles and books reviews are also welcome.
Submissions may include photographs and/or line diagrams (with captions) that illustrate information contained in the article. Photographs/diagrams should not be incorporated into the text or otherwise embedded in Microsoft® Word or PowerPoint files; instead, each of them should be sent as a separate file. Digital images should be saved at a resolution no lower than 200 dpi. Images that are not original or obtained from Army sources must be accompanied by a copyright release. The Photograph/Illustration Guide may be consulted for additional information.
A short biography that includes the author’s full name, rank, job title, current unit, and civilian education; current e-mail and physical mailing addresses; and a current commercial daytime telephone number should be included with the article submission.
Protection, Army Chemical Review, Engineer, and Military Police are distributed to military units worldwide; as such, they are readily accessible to nongovernment or foreign individuals and organizations. Therefore, all information contained in articles must be unclassified, nonsensitive, and releasable to the public. To ensure compliance, articles must be accompanied by a security release from the author’s unit or activity security manager as well as clearance from the organization's public affairs office; neither the security release nor the public affairs clearance memorandum may be signed by the author.
Publication of submitted articles, photographs, or diagrams is not guaranteed. Materials are cleared for publication only after thorough review. Authors will be notified if their articles are slated for publication in upcoming issues; for this reason, it is important that notification of any changes in e-mail addresses or telephone numbers be provided.
All articles accepted for publication are subject to grammatical and structural changes as well as editing for style.
Articles for Protection, Army Chemical Review, Engineer, and Military Police are accepted year-round.
How to Submit Articles
Send submissions by e-mail to:
Protection | Army Chemical Review | Engineer | Military Police
Note. Please indicate if a submitted article has been, or is being considered for, publication elsewhere. In general, articles that have previously been published are not accepted for publication in professional bulletins.
Photograph/Illustration Guide
Photographs and illustrations can greatly contribute to the visual appeal of an article. The following should be kept in mind when submitting photographs or illustrations:
Subject matter. The best way to visually enhance an article is to include action shots showing Soldiers performing their jobs or completing training. Static photographs of landscapes, structures, or distant machinery in action are less useful. Photographs of groups of people smiling at the camera or “grip and grin” shots add little to an article and are unlikely to be used.
Format. Photographs saved in JPEG (or JPG) format and sent as attachments to an e-mail are best. Graphics files tend to be large, and e-mail systems frequently limit the size of messages that can be sent and received. (For example, our system cannot accept messages larger than 20MB.) One solution is to send graphics in multiple separate e-mails, with just one or two attachments in each. Photographs and other graphics should not be embedded in a Microsoft® Word document or PowerPoint presentation.
Size and resolution. Photographs or graphics that measure 5 x 7 inches and have a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi) are ideal for publication, but smaller sizes may be acceptable. When taking photographs, the camera should be set to the highest resolution possible. Photographs that are available for download as “high resolution” have the best on-screen appearance. Photographs should not be compressed; they should be saved at a resolution no lower than 200 dpi. JPEG photographs should be no smaller than 150kb. A 5- x 7-inch, 300 dpi photograph saved as a TIF should be 1MB to 3MB in size. Using a graphics software program (such as Adobe® Photoshop) to increase the size and/or resolution of a small photograph does not increase the quality of the photograph. Photographs should not be manipulated by sharpening, resizing, retouching, or cropping the image. (We will do all postproduction work; we will not publish photos that are pixilated or out of focus.)
Copyright. Images that are not original or obtained from Army sources must be accompanied by a copyright release.
Captions. Captions describing the photographs and identifying the subjects should be provided. Captions are subject to editing.
Photographs of foreign nationals. Due to security restrictions, photographs of foreign nationals cannot be published unless they have been digitally edited to blur faces and are accompanied by written permission to release (signed by the subject[s]).
Graphs/charts and illustrations. Original digital files of graphs/charts/illustrations are preferred. Original PowerPoint slides and/or layered Adobe Photoshop/Illustration files should be submitted. Files should not be saved in a different format and layers should not be flattened.
Security Release Memorandum
Please use the Security Release Template as a guide for creating your security release memorandum. The memorandum confirms that any visual elements are suitable for public release, that content is unclassified, and that you have cited content accurately. This memorandum ensures compliance with regulations (AR 360-1, AR 380-5, AR 380-10, AR 530-1).