The big event of this past week was land navigation: four days and three nights, one thunderstorm, a three km by 2 km area of operation, about 40 miles traveled, and a whole lot of spiders! We left Monday morning for a place they call Red Diamond: a place filled with forests, hills, and enough trails to help you find your way. The equipment: two canteens, a Camelbak, a map, a military protractor, and a red-light headlamp to read your map. The challenge: starting at 0430, find 4/5 points (given in 8-digit grid format) in the four hours given, two hours in the dark, two in the light. The tricks to pass: stay confident, follow your training, check your compass often, don't forget your pace count, jog the roads, and if you see a footpath and the red glow of headlamps in the distance, there's probably a point near!
After arriving Monday we received a brief on the course, ate an MRE (my favorite), and then were sent out for a practice run on the course. With two partners, find 3/4 points in three hours. Luckily the purpose of this iteration was to familiarize us with the course, because most of what we did was backtrack and wander through the woods! We left our base with confidence, jogging a kilometer in ten minutes and then spending another twenty trekking through thick brush, only to realize that we originally jogged a whole half kilometer too far when starting out. Luckily that was our only time getting lost, but with the amount of backtracking we had to do paired three hours of 95 degree heat and high humidity, I made it back to base with only two points, feet dragging, and legs overheating. Fun but hard day, we learned our lessons and hoped the next day would be better. By about 1800 they let us set up our sleeping area and make our ways to bed. We all spent the next hour or so setting up makeshift poncho hooches; as it was my first time, my lean-to was nothing but rudimentary, but we weren't planning on rain so I wasn't worried!
The next morning we woke at 0300 for a 0430 step off time. I shaved, brushed my teeth, ate my MRE, and made sure I knew my night-time 100 meter pace count; every meter is important, and when you have to trek through brush alone for up to 600 meters you don't want to be more than a few meters off. This day was only a pretest, but if you found all five points in the time allotted it counted as a pass for test day. Although I only found 4/5 of my points, the day went relatively well and I learned some valuable lessons, one of them being that the whoever makes the maps for the Red Diamond course needs to step their game up! Twice throughout the day I found myself either following a trail that should have ended hundreds of meters ago or looking for trails that ended up not existing. Lesson learned: take the map with a grain of salt when it comes to trails and trust your instincts when you know it's wrong. After getting back to base camp they gave us until 1100 to eat and dry off (a combination of morning dew and sweat makes for a nasty combo) and then sent us off again for another four point, three hour practice iteration. The heat and humidity hit as we were stepping off, and despite the fact that my battle buddy and myself told ourselves we wouldn't overwork ourselves so we had energy for test day, three hours later we returned to base tired, wet, and less confident as we only found one of our points. As the day rolled to an end I made sure to hydrate, stretch, and ensure that my second hooch was better than the first as a storm was about to roll through. I finished my best attempt as the sun was getting ready to set which heralded the winds of a nasty storm. As I laid down on my sleeping mat a few rain droplets begin to hit my face; clearly my lean-to wasn't waterproof. Tired, I pulled my uniform top over my face and closed my eyes. Next thing I knew, it was 0245 and I was dry, thank God!
Waking up Wednesday there was only one thing I hoped for: to qualify on test day so I wouldn't have to fight the forest any extra times (we would be given one more practice iteration that afternoon if we didn't pass as well as one attempt at a retest the following morning). At this point I couldn't have thought of a better birthday present. The morning was foggy and only hazy crescent moon to light the way. My first point was about 1.5km away, 80% of which I jogged confidently, as I simply had to follow a road which lead to a trail which lead to a hilltop which was only 50 meters away from my point. Of course, instead of finding a hilltop I ran into another road. Woops. I spent a few minutes trying to find out where I went wrong (I realized I shouldn't have trusted my map so much!), 15 minutes trying to find out where I was, and another 20 minutes making an semi-educated attempt to dead reckon to where my point should have been in relation to my current position. About an hour into the iteration I realized I was straight up lost. I gave up on that point, about 30 minutes later than I should have, and set out for my next point. I set a 270 degree azimuth to a major road to my west and began to trudge through the brush. Panic set in after about ten minutes of pushing through deep brush, realizing that any chance of receiving that birthday present was dwindling. As light began to crest on the horizon, about 0600, I finally got out of the brush and was ready to find my first point. I was wetter than ever, my boots and socks felt as if I had trudged through a pool, but I was at least determined. I was only a little bit behind schedule but I knew exactly where I had to go as I had seen this point on a previous day; sadly I had seen it during the day so nothing looked familiar, and it took me an extra ten or so minutes that I didn't have to find the point. As soon as I found it I began to make the two kilometer run to my next two points, both conveniently located near a major intersection. Reaching the intersection at 0630, I saw one of my squad members, an experienced Cavalry Scout more than accustomed to the woods who had received a perfect the day before. He said a few calming words which put a little bit of confidence back in my heart, something I desperately needed at that point. Calling an audible on my plan, which had fallen apart somewhere 2.5kms away in the brush, found my distance and azimuth I would need to take, pulled out my compass, and spent 10 minutes traveling 250 meters, fighting through branches, brush, and spider web, and right as I hit my 180th step (my 100 meter pace count through thick brush was 72 steps), I turned and saw my point only 5 meters away. While I'm sure my pace count and compass helped me get there, it felt like nothing short of a miracle. I quickly ran to my second point and found it with ease as a small foot path actually lead to it. With one point to go and an 1.5 hours to find it and get back to base, I decided to take a quick rest and treat myself. I pulled out an MRE electrolyte pack, a quick boost of sugar and electrolytes before 1.5km run to my fourth point and the 1.5km run to base. In my impatience I cut open my left middle finger with my knife. I could have ripped the packet open safely, but like I said, impatience. Woops again! I wrapped my finger up really quickly, threw the powder down my throat, and got on the run. I made it to the point from which I would have to step into the woods, counted my paces for 300 meters and was shown that maybe I wasn't so great at breaking brush. I put down a marker to make sure I didn't get more lost than I was and began to walk in wider and wider circles to find my point. With about 45 minutes left to make it back to base, I began to get extremely nervous. I was about to walk my way out of the woods and try shooting my azimuth again when I heard cracks in the brush. I sprinted 30 meters to find my point with three other desperate soldiers making sure they were in the right place. Thank the Lord! I was able to walk back to base camp instead of run, confident that every point I had reached was the right one. After getting the go, I sat down in the bleachers, wet, chafing, triumphant, and one year older.
The rest of the day was spent just sitting around, a luxury for the victors since those who had failed had to go do another practice iteration with the cadre. That night we slept underneath the stars and were able to wake up at 4:30. Those who had previously qualified the days before did did some light five-man tactical navigation, got back at 7:30, and cheered on the people who were completing their retest as they were running their final couple hundred meters. Out of the 124 candidates in our company, only three failed (They will be recycled, sitting at battalion HQ for a couple of weeks until the next class gets to land navigation week). The forty minute bus ride back was nice and a much needed nap was had. The shower I took when I got back was more than glorious. With land navigation out of the way all I have to worry about now is two field leadership exercises, both 7-10 days in the field performing missions as squads and platoons. OCS has been relatively easy so far and the challenges that do arise are always fun and I learn a lot with every failure. I'll do my best to keep you all in the loop as I continue to move along!
P.S. A few things I learned out there!
- a la equipment: two is one and one is none. Always bring extra, you never know what you're going to lose (I lost a protractor during the pretest, was very lucky I had happened to bring along an extra).
- If you like it, tie it down. I had wondered why we needed to die down our canteens and had tied down my knife because I saw some in-service guys doing it; I wish I had done the same with my new SOG multi-tool! Thank God for Amazon Prime.
- Baby powder is magic: great for your feet, great for chafing. Bring a lot! Especially when you're going to be wet for the foreseeable future.
P.P.S. Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes, I don't have the energy to proof read this thing! Enjoy!
Your equipment is everything. Well almost...and in your line of work it can save your life, and your team's lives.
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