In this day and
age of smartphones, most people don’t know how to use a compass or map. For a
Marine this knowledge must be second nature.
Equipped
with compasses and maps, recruits of Echo Company, 2nd Recruit Training
Battalion, maneuvered through the Land Navigation Course during the Crucible at
Edson Range, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Feb. 24.
During Field
Week of recruit training, throughout the hilly terrain of Camp Pendleton
recruits learned the basic fundamentals of combat, everything from combat
formations to land navigation. The course is buried deep in the mountainous
terrain of Camp Pendleton, covered with cacti, bushes, and wildlife.
“Before we
started the course, we received a class on how to properly conduct the
different techniques of land navigation,” said Recruit Alvaro F. Romero. “We
learned how to plot our route, find the azimuth and find our individual pace
counts.
They learned how
to measure ground distance using pace count. A pace count is how many steps it
takes a person to walk a known distance. It allowed them to keep track of how
far they had traveled from their starting points.
“As we were
getting ready to actually take on the course, the instructors placed us into
groups of 4 or more,” said Romero. “We were then released to find six different
points we had plotted on our maps using only the knowledge we learned in
class.”
Each navigation point is marked with a numbered ammunition
can. Each group of recruits was given a different route to obtain to.
“We were
given approximately two hours to find all of our points,” said Recruit Diego A.
Tellez. “Once we officially found all of our points, we had to check in with
one of the course instructors to confirm that we found all of the correct
points.”
Going through the
course with minimal, or at times no supervision, recruits had a chance to get a
sense of the critical factor of learning and properly executing the techniques
they were taught.
“It’s important
for us to learn the here at recruit training early on in our careers, because
it may not be long before we have to actually utilize a map and compass,” said
Tellez. “It helps our team building skills as well. We have to work together
and depend on each other to be precise on our tasked jobs.”
With another new set of tools and
knowledge in their vastly developing arsenal, Echo Company marched on with an
increased confidence in their ability to navigate and conduct themselves in a
combat environment.
“Modern day technology isn’t always
dependable,” said Romero. “When it fails, you have to be able to go back to the
basics and accomplish the mission.”