#71 - Land navigation

I only have a few minutes to write. It is the early morning, and I am on fire guard duty. I spent about 40 minutes trying to figure out who was missing from our bay. We are supposed to keep accountability, but many of the people just go through the motions. This task burned up much of my alloted letter-writing time.

This morning I participated in our first ability group run. We ran for about 1 1/2 miles. I am happy to report that I did not fall out, as tempting as the prospect was. I struggled a bit in the back of the formation, but I finished with everyone. At least 1/4 of the folks in my run group fell out. I'm hoping that I can continue to hang in there, as I would love to improve on my running.

Today we had classes on map reading. Since this is something I have a lot of experience with, I ended up helping out a lot of folks in my platoon. We have the land navigation course coming up where we will be tasked with making our way to several points in the woods. I'm looking forward to it. I'm a little worried about my battle buddy knowing what to do, as she slept through most of the map reading class... but I'll help her out as much as I can.

...

Right now I'm out at the land navigation course waiting for my turn. My battle buddy is in charge of holding the compass, and I am keeping the pace. Honestly this stuff is easy for me, since I have been engaged in "land nav" for the past 12 years as an archaeologist. Speaking of archaeology, the Drill Sergeants have told us that there are archaeological sites out here bounded by white tape that we need to avoid. One of the moderators of my website was involved in a cultural resource survey here. I wonder if he was involved in recording any of these sites? I'll have to try not to be distracted by what is around me. Right about now I really miss what I do for a living at home.

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It is now just before bedtime, and I have a few minutes to write. Our land navigation went fine, and my battle buddy did well. I told her that I was proud of her. She drives me crazy sometimes, but in general, our relationship is beginning to improve.

During our time in the woods, we passed a number of the aforementioned archaeological sites. From what I was able to tell, there were a number of historic scatters likely associated with early to mid 20 century training activities at Fort Jackson - nothing very old. The DSs told us to avoid the marked archaeological sites - at least they are taking care of the base's cultural resources.

Today we were issued our IBAs, which were quite heavy (close to 30 lbs. with the plates). These are the modern version of flak jackets, and are bulky and cumbersome to wear. We were also issued our protective (gas) masks. Oh joy. I'm not very enthused about my return to the gas chamber, which is supposed to happen in another week or two. I had soooo much fun the first time around!

We were also introduced to the low crawl. This is a maneuver where you pull your prostrate body along the ground with your face in the dirt. You are supposed to make as low as a silhouette as possible so you don't draw the enemy's fire. We also practiced the high crawl, which is a little easier, but still uncomfortable. We've only moved a few meters doing these, and these maneuvers are absolutely exhausting. I know with time we will have to do this for a far greater distance.

Still waiting to receive mail. We're all anxiously waiting to hear from our loved ones at home...