I've been teaching new Soldiers the "handrail" method of going fast to an easily located point near their final point (such as an identifiable bend in a river, a road intersection, radio tower, etc...) and then dead reckoning from there the short distance to the final target (map azimuth and pace count). The older official instructions didn't have much if anything on this method... glad to see they caught up.
It sounds funny and hard to believe, but you would be surprised (or maybe not since you are at least an SSG), how many people walk off small cliffs during NIGHT land nav. Occasionally "cheating" with a flashlight with a red liens is better than breaking an ankle
Great video. I have done land navigation as part of my profession for years. Two things, while I like the protractor I would think that its fragile nature would make it one of the first things to go in most situations. Second thing, in some areas, it is possible to use the cartesian triangulation method to roughly place where you are at on topo map. I have been able to shoot myself within 25 meters where I was located. I have never seen this method discussed in these videos. Finally, I am glad they talked about the pace differential that will occur when different obstacles are encountered, such as terrain, surface, etc.
Did a Ranger supervised Escape and Evasion activity at Fort Benning during OCS. Practically the entire route was through the Chatahooche Swamp which was not illustrated on the map. Got through without being caught, but was pissed when the Ranger innocently if there were un reported map features. This was in 1964. Then, in Signal Corps Advanced Course a registered nurse who got kicked out of At,y Nurse Corps I taught him map reading which he actually passed.
Assault Rifle 15 you are just a hater. I did rotc in 2003, I was enlisted since 1998, commissioned as an officer in 2005. Just got my discharge in march. Don't talk shit about officer's, I retired as a major and I seen good Lts and bad lts, good NCos and bad ones..... police yourself and shut the fuck up
When I did my night land NAV At Ft. Smith (during BNOC) I was waking and walked right into a sinkhole. I went all the way underwater and never touched bottom. As I tried to climb out the sides were slate rock and just crumbled in my hands. I kicked off of the wall and was able to hang my arm over a dead tree that had fallen over the mouth of the hole... as I pulled myself out it started cracking... True story...
Are you guys Army contractors, or what? These are really cool videos, and I really wish we would have had these back when I was in! Land nav was fun - it was, IFIRC, 5 days at Bragg for PSYOP/CA. A really good time, mostly because of the quality of our NCOs.
Look at the patch for 4th Infantry Division. Know what is depicted on that patch? Four cadets or 2LT's trying to headi magnetic north. It may sound funny but truth is stranger than fiction. I was one too but was an SFC before I was a 2LT so my time of getting lost was as a PV2
Because of the coming micronova, declination is moving much farther, and much faster and so declination information is likely incorrect My up-to-date declination is 30 degrees, 15 degrees off from the official declination for my area. but there is still a way to recalibrate magnetic declination using the shadow of sticks recording the path of the sun---rotation of the earth has not yet changed. First stick will show East. Mark it with a sharp stick pushed in. After a few minutes you can mark sun shadow travel where the shadow has moved - Push another stick in to mark West. Lay a straight stick from the E mark to the W mark. Geographic north or True North is 90 degrees from the E-W line. With your compass pointing toward True North, note how far off your compass is now. That is your true up-to-date declination. More on micronova in my 2nd book, Surviving the Micronova: This Train Is on the Tracks is available now.
So confusing at 7:35 all turns should be at a 90 degree, why 180, then 90, then 360, then 90, maybe I did the math wrong, but it didn't put me back at my azimuth, all turns should be 90 degrees! Correct me if I'm wrong :\
They were all 90 degrees. Started with an azimuth of 90, turned 90 degrees to the right which put him at 180 degrees, after walking past the obstacle, he returned to 90 degrees (turned left 90 degrees) then walked until he got past the obstacle and turned 90 degrees to the left (the new azimuth is 360 degrees. Which is 90 degrees minus 90 degrees since he is turning left). Not sure if this made it more clear or more confusing. Essentially, all turns are made at 90 degrees from whatever the starting azimuth was. All the while keeping track of what the pace count is for each leg of the box.
I agree using absolute angles was confusing. The US military compass has not only a N indicator/needle but also an E and W indicator probably to go 90° left or right without resetting anything. My compass (old but newer as a model) has 60° left and right alignment for the needle.
Is this the course done at Knox? I will start MSIII this fall after serving AD enlisted. The officers I work with all did their landnav course at Lewis when LDAC was there and said that it was not self correcting.
Geez, I didn't realize I need a degree in math, topography and geography to do this. I got B's in advanced algebra and geometry but this, this I couldn't pass after trying it 4x. To include a military grid map.
MH motorVlogs its honestly really not hard at all. You have a protractor for plotting a line on a map that will give you an azimuth (direction in degrees) that you can follow with your compass. You use that same protractor to measure the distance from your start point to your end point. Then you go to your start point, turn to the correct azimuth that you determined, and start walking in that direction, while keeping pace to make sure you are going the right distance. All the while you are looking around and trying to identify terrain that you see that matches up with the terrain features on the map, just to make sure you are in the right place
Nah. Just the important units, facilities, and functions, such as military, NASA, etc. 12th, 16th conversion doesn’t work well when under stress; 1/4”, 100 yard, 1 mile etc., are not as precise or convenient as 1mm, 1cm, 100m, 1km among which a monkey could calculate by heart. Imperial system does offer familiarity and convenience to some, say, your handyman, could easily tell 1/4” which is ALWAYS relative to an inch. Here, relativity is the key benefit. You burn that inch to your brain and the rest is all 2nd nature. It’s an eternal ironic topic that the imperial Great Britain has long given up the imperial system while the US, proudly independent of its old colonial master, has clung to his classic legacy.
Easy said than done. But in reality you'll be yelled at all the time by a mad staff sargent determined to ruin your concentration oh yeah, the land nav exam is usually performed in pairs so the other 4 eye nerds 🤓 stuck with you can challenge your reasoning & put you on looser's discourse 😅 be aware of that.
Fort Story, Dam Neck and or Little Creek late at night sounds and feels like the Amazon jungle to a west coast warrior. I had my guys question my coordinates because it lead us right into some water in the pitch dark with all manners of noises coming from there. It looked like a pitch black hell . I was right, but they just didnt wanna go in there with the water moccasins and snapping turtles. Can't say I blame them. By the time the time those chiggers, spiders, and whatever else gets done chewing on you up in there, you're past ready to get on down range. Also, DAGRs are a piece of shit. Kept loosing signal. A buddies nav aid on his Iphone saved our ass several times. Trying to read a gotdamn map with a red light felt out of date and stupid to me back then. Glad most missions didnt rely on maps but satellites. Still mando training when all else fails and all u have is a compass and map
Who knows of the spiders at ft Benning course (summer cycle) oh and the hornets in the ground lmaoo I got stung on my lip, hand and leg haha great time
