Land Navigation

6 Jan.
This morning the unit was outside the FOB at the land navigation course. I got to join them once again.

This time, my uniform included 43 pounds of Individual Body Armor (IBA) and a 12 pound helmet! I had to borrow someone's equipment to be able to participate in the training. My equipment issue is not until this Tuesday.

The first part of the training was land navigation on vehicles using the Army's latest handheld navigation computer. The equipment is very high tech compared to what I used before: a map and compass. The interesting thing is that civilian GPS systems are not authorized in country as the enemy can use the signal to target soldiers. The signal given off of civilian GPS systems can be picked up anywhere. The signal given off of an Army GPS system cannot be jammed or picked up. It has been a hard lesson for some.

Our team found all our points and received a "go" for that portion of training.

The next portion was dead reckoning. We were broken down into teams of four and had to shoot an azimuth, with the compass, to find points that were anywhere from 400 meters to 830 meters away. One person shoots the azimuth while another person runs in that general direction. When the shooter says to stop, the next person would pace count to determine the distance. The area was wooded and swampy.

It was actually quite fun and we found all our points and received a "go."

The final portion was terrain recognition navigation. We had to find 2 out of 3 plotted points using a map only. We used terrain features like hills, rivers, etc., to find our points. We hiked about 2 miles or so to get our points.

I was a tired puppy after this. Someone ordered pizza because the mess hall was closed. I had two pieces and took a hot shower. I'll be eating some ibuprofen tonight before hitting the sack!