tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12389938.post4989581722175901893..comments2024-03-28T16:53:39.313-05:00Comments on PawPaw's House: A World Without GPSPawpawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14959820068377494313noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12389938.post-67462193526375532412018-02-16T11:24:09.718-06:002018-02-16T11:24:09.718-06:00I was an armor officer from 86 through 89. We navi...I was an armor officer from 86 through 89. We navigated like everyone had for hundreds of years, with a map. Compasses were useless on the tanks, so you had to orienteer. I did carry a small, crappy compass around my neck on a shoe string. I called it my "oh shit" compass. If I was so turned around or lost that I did not know where I was, I said "oh shit", jumped off my tank, and ran 100 yards away to get away from 68 tons of metal and determined which direction north was. If anyone ever says they never got disoriented (not lost), they are lying. When you are moving at 15 or 20 mph and you can't use a compass but only orienteer, you can get off track very quickly. The only way to get good at it is to train over and over again. <br /><br />One time I got completely disoriented in the desert in California, at the NTC in a sandstorm at night. I jumped off the tank and found north. I convinced myself my oh shit compass had stopped working and was wrong. I decided to move in the opposite direction. Luckily I saw headlights. Once it got through my thick head that no military vehicles move at night with their headlights on I knew something was wrong. I was looking at the highway to Las Vagas, that was off the post. I turned around and got right. I almost led a full scale tank attack on an American city, which would have brought me undying fame and legendary status, in a bad way. <br /><br />The most pressure I have ever felt in my life was being the lead tank on a night attack (training) with the whole battalion or even brigade following me. I would sit for hours staring at the map before the movement trying to memorize terrain features that might help me. If you screwed up, everyone knew it. No one would get in sleep that night as you tried to unf--k your mistake. Your radio net would light up with everyone from the company commander to the battalion commander screaming at you. Your whole worth to the unit when you were a junior officer was if you could navigate or not. I took great pride in it, and generally led the battalion because I was considered reliable when navigating.<br /><br />My son is now a cavalry scout platoon leader. I tell him this and he rolls his eyes and calls me a dinosaur. I tell him to brush up on his map reading and compass work but he laughs and says that they have three redundant systems that always work. I hope he is right for his sake.Bill B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16025841890655201283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12389938.post-24266230443010903662018-02-16T07:28:50.512-06:002018-02-16T07:28:50.512-06:00Before GPS was LORAN. There used to be a warning p...Before GPS was LORAN. There used to be a warning posted in the cockpit of the oilfield helicopters that I flew in: "Navigation shall not be predicated on LORAN"Peripatetic Engineerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08508035944158746797noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12389938.post-53488088644000747902018-02-16T06:01:19.353-06:002018-02-16T06:01:19.353-06:00I had mentioned to my Army coworkers that I didn&#...I had mentioned to my Army coworkers that I didn't really know how to read a topo map. <br />When the laughing died down I explained why. <br />I simply told them that the oceans are flat, and if there are high points the Navy tries to avoid going there with ships. John in Phillyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16196033252818387245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12389938.post-31410878507511107632018-02-15T21:38:48.502-06:002018-02-15T21:38:48.502-06:00I was out in 2010 but the reliability of the compa...I was out in 2010 but the reliability of the compass training was.. less than great. Jokes aside about young officers or privates doing it, I remember being on a somewhat disused/new training site to shoot for specific points, punch your card with the hole punch on a can found if you got there... Shall we say I was damn good at finding where we needed to be. Problem being based off the instructions given and coordinates we had... Eh things did not match up. Question one's sanity for a bit, crash though the course then go back. Get the failing mark and request for the same azimuths being reshot manually and with the GPS. Turns out this course had failed.. quite a lot of soldiers and it was set up wrong. I think while going to electronic means makes war a lot quicker and possibly more precise I also am concerned about the fact there is no back ups. Things fail. The M68 Red Dot sites are amazingly reliable. but they still fail. (Armorer here) Then what? Lots of troops can't shoot worth a damn with either site. Or go with a GPS system or manual compass. Jesterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17973419641321027031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12389938.post-91798247999522403282018-02-15T21:04:47.873-06:002018-02-15T21:04:47.873-06:00I still own 3 liquid filled compasses and haven...I still own 3 liquid filled compasses and haven't forgotten how to read a topo map. Hell, it's only been 55 years.... Old Graftonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12389938.post-65612415143018478102018-02-15T17:33:52.006-06:002018-02-15T17:33:52.006-06:00I'm pretty sure that the Army is still teachin...I'm pretty sure that the Army is still teaching land navigation, at every level. For a maneuver force, Land Nav is pretty basic. The GPS is a good back-up, but nothing takes the place of the map.Pawpawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14959820068377494313noreply@blogger.com