land nav

hello avid readers. the direct e-mail marketing method seemed to work since i received feedback from you guys. thanks for listening! i will continue to force my thoughts on you :)

well, we're in barracks tonight, and i don't know why. i think it's because the a/c is broken in the field... more on that in a minute.


we went out to the 'yankee' range on monday afternoon for land navigation. we hauled our rucksacks and assault bags onto a cramped bus and rode 40 min or so to the site. we reviewed some land nav techniques; dead reckoning, shooting an azimuth, etc. also we got our pace counts for roads, woods and while running.

we pulled up stakes and went in that night, lightning warning, apparently there were serious storms in atlanta. we really didn't get anything here. it was nice to sleep in a bed anyway, but we had to get up at 4 am to get back out to the course for a 5 am start. the course went fine for me in the beginning. it's a ton of walking, but you get 5 hours to complete. when i was ready to hit my 4th point (of the 5 needed to pass) i realized that i had lost my score sheet. this is the sheet where you log the points you have found. there is a verifying hole-punch at each station. so, i get a little dejected and walked my sad-ass back to the start point. i was a no-go, but it did not count as a failed test because it was "pre-qualifying".

that evening i was subjected to re-training and a 3 hour run on the other nav course. my already aching feet had to suffer. i was embarrassed at not passing, and a little annoyed i had to train on the steps i wasn't having any problems with. i got up this morning at 4:10 with the other re-testers. we headed out at 5:25 and i was off. i had three points before the sun even came up. i had my fourth and fifth with so much time left, i was able to take an easy walk all the way back. i turned in my sheet for a 'go' at 8:30, with 2 whole hours to spare. you won't see me blow the same training twice.

tomorrow, we get to sleep in 45 minutes later than the people who still failed land nav; a 4:15 wake up for weapons hand out. hooah. armed and not dangerous for the next 2.5 weeks.