The Stovebolt Site Forums The Side Lot Legion Hall Night LandNav ....

New excuse for not being to finish the night land nav course in the allotted time ...

Why didn't *I* think of this one???

That was actually a lost prior enlisted 2ndLT.

I did fairly well on the first few iterations of land nav. I just took the trail that my compass was pointed at. 100,000 LTs can’t be wrong.
That didn’t work very well on final land nav. I missed the first box, but walked up on another box about 100 meters past where the first one should have been. Then took a looo ng time to find another box (in plain sight). I could not find one box. Except for the first two, My boxes were spread out all across the training area. Luckily, I missed the bus after I found my farthest box from the starting point. I rechecked my first two boxes and noticed I had “found” the wrong box. I ran all the way around the training area and got back shortly before the end of the evolution.
I only missed that one box I couldn’t find, but I passed.

Night land nav. I’m finding my boxes easily. BUT, I come to the stream. There is a log across the water. And on the other side, there are a few folks with flashlights looking at maps. I yell across the stream. “Hey, can I use this log to cross?” One tells back sure!!“ I reply, thinking they are fellow WO’s, “screw you, You just want me to fall off it”. We all laugh. But I shimmy across the log like a squirrel. Then realize I’d just told one of the Captains to SO!!! Yikes. He signed me off and I returned to my room.
The next day in class, this captain is the instructor. Of course he leads off with the story about a WO who told him to screw off. But he followed it up by describing the log. “It was well used, because it was shiny. That’s from (unlike the WO, who ran across the log) LTs mounting it and sliding across. All those bumps [from long gone branches] on the log? Those are scrotums left behind by LTs who were afraid to run across. Like a certain WO. I was scrunched down in my seat. Of course my roommate was laughing and pointing at me.
I ran in to the Capt in the Hawk a couple weeks later. He said that he takes that position on purpose, because at least one student asks the same question, and responds like I did. I bought him a beer.

I don't remember that log. How come the WOs got a log? WE didn't get any logs... I had to cross the Old Corps way...

Actually, I don't remember much about that night. Land Nav was one of the few things at TBS I was actually any good at. One of my buddies from the Academy though ... He couldn't terrain appreciate so he had to rely on pace counts and his compass. And staring at his map the whole time. Which meant he had his flash light on.... which blew out any night vision he could have found handy to avoid falling into an older fighting position with concertina wire... He got all wrapped up in it and spent the next few hours blowing his whistle before any of us noticed he wasn't back yet and we went out looking for him. His cammies were more of a ghillie suit and he was all cut up, but not bleeding too bad. He ended up flying C-130's.

Not every path had a log.
One B of our WM WOs came back covered in mud. Another guy was constantly falling into water. If there was any water in the area code, he would find it and fall in.
I need to find the pix of the WM. She retired a CWO5, and was dating the MSgt that was my Maint chief.

Paths... Did I read that right? PATHS??????????????????????? The WO Land Nav course had "paths???" manicured and stone-lined?? Lit?? You can't be serious????? You had signs, too, no doubt -- "This way to LN Box Alpha 14." Or did you just have docents guiding you? Did you have a rub down from a professional masseuse when you finished, too???? Some one to clean your weapon and polish your boots??? I knew you guys had it good, I just never knew HOW good ....

And A WM CWO5?? No ... I do not think I need to see a picture ... I have neither the clearance nor the need (desire) to know ...

Now if you want to talk "covered in mud" .... let's talk the endurance course at the NTA (Oki)...

We had none of that. The “paths” were made by thousands of LTs using their unserviceable compasses to just smash all the vegetation between the starting point and the boxes.

I’ll have to dig around for her muddy pix.

my last night land was at Benning, no moon thick canopy. I passed, How, to this day I have no idea how. The ability to read a map is a lost art.

Indeed it is. When GPS goes down....

Terrain appreciation works in the dark once you establish your starting position. You just go slower.

Compasses are for squids .... hard to TA at sea....

JD Vasquez set the final land nav record. He was priorcc c army and a USMC grunt. He was very skilled at land navigation SOMEONE questioned his integrity and said he cheated. JD took that as CA a challenge. He let tgg he rm search him for any land navigation aids. They stripped him naked. He completed the course faster than the first time.

I’ll need to find my picture of a WO praying to ygg by e azimuth gods.

I didn't break the record but I did get detailed to lead remedial training for my fellow Fox 87 LTs who were LandNav challenged.

I really enjoyed LandNav. And I was pretty good at it. I took to it at sea, too. I was on the off-shore sailing team at USNA and was navigator for my boat ("Semper Fidelis"). We did most of the East Coast races -- tore up the Chesapeake Bay races, of course, but also did Jersey coast, through New York Harbor, through the East River to Hell's Gate, into Long Island Sound, the sound series, the Onion Patch, Block Island race. Newport-Bermuda Race (I nailed Bermuda with just Dead Reckoning, a sextant and an antiquated RDF). Then, got us back to Newport through a storm and then thick New England fog.

Then ... I did the nav planning for my senior year summer cruise (USS Wabash, AOR-5) when we sortied Subic Bay bound for the Gulf of Thailand. The "Canonball" didn't hit anything standing out of Subic so I guess I did ok.