Navigation

During my final term at university, I took Naval Science 423: OCS Preparation. Now, this was one of the Marine Corps option courses, so it was preparation for Marine Corps Officer Candidates School. In addition to running and humps (marching with a rucksack, not the other thing), which I didn't participate in, it included such course work as rifle anatomy and maintenance, close order drill, fire team and squad tactics and organization, and land navigation. I wasn't always outstanding at land navigation, but it's a fairly simple concept to pick up.

In my job at the NTC, I don't generally have to worry much about maps or navigation; on this current deployment, for various reasons, I do. A lot of our navigation has required maps and GPS units. I bought a Garmin eTrex last week from Amazon, and both before and since then I've been sufficiently impressed with my ability to navigate using a map and a GPS. To be fair, it you can't navigate with a map and a GPS, there's pretty much something wrong with you, but that hasn't stopped some of my co-workers from having a sufficiently difficult time finding their destinations. Not only have I impressed myself, but I've impressed other co-workers with my ability to navigate.

I guess something I learned in college paid off in the real world after all, eh? And I can guarantee you it wasn't that stupid Ethnic Studies class.