Multi-Service Publication Designation Taxonomy Record

PROBLEM: Every military publication carries a designation — type, subject number, sequence number — but the system differs by service and era: ATP 3-21.8 follows staff functions, while pre-2001 Army manuals number by branch (FM 5 engineers, FM 7 infantry, FM 21 every-soldier skills). A reader who cannot parse a designation cannot tell what kind of document they found, which service wrote it, or what subject it covers.

SOLUTION: A multi-service publication designation taxonomy record: every designation parsed into type, subject, and sequence, governed as data with its service family and era rules attached — so a reader can decode any designation on sight, and a librarian can sort 4,215 publications by what they are instead of by where they happened to land.

EVIDENCE BASIS: DOCUMENTED — T.Rex Arms Field Manual Vault FAQ: "Every publication has a designation: a type, a subject number and a sequence number." Subject numbers follow staff functions (1 personnel, 2 intelligence, 3 operations, 4 logistics, 5 plans, 6 command and communications); pre-2001 Army manuals number by branch (FM 5 engineers, FM 6 field artillery, FM 7 infantry, FM 21 every-soldier skills, FM 23 weapons). By type: Doctrine ADP/MCDP/AFDP 19/17/29; Joint JP 138; Field manuals FM/MCWP 2,000/90; Techniques ATP/MCRP/MCTP 220/146/57; Training TC 138; Technical manuals TM 840.