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Soldiers from the 21st Theater Sustainment Command’s 21st Special Troops Battalion conducted land navigation training Oct. 15 to 17 to prepare for the Warrior Leader Course in the KMC.
Training began on Panzer Kaserne with classroom instruction covering every aspect of land navigation. Soldiers learned about terrain features, including hills, valleys, ridges, saddles and draws, and how to read the legend on a map. They also received instruction on how to orient a map and determine its scale, said Sgt. 1st Class Jose Garnica, an operations NCO assigned to the 21st STB and the course instructor.
“Land navigation is something a lot of these Soldiers don’t use in their day-to-day mission, but it is something all Soldiers need to keep close to their heart,” Garnica said. “In a time when people rely so heavily on technology, it’s important to know how to use a map in case those electronic systems fail.”
The class continued with instruction on reading an eight-digit grid coordinate and plotting it on a map. After plotting multiple points, the students learned to determine an azimuth and distance between two points. Finally, Garnica taught them the basics of terrain association and how to identify the location of terrain features in relation to a plotted point.
“Plotting points, determining the azimuth, determining distance and terrain association will help these Soldiers find their points quicker,” Garnica said. “When they go to the Warrior Leader Course they will go into it with a better understanding of multiple ways to find their points.”
On the third day of training, the Soldiers put everything they learned into practice with LANDNAV lanes on Rhine Ordnance Barracks. The “Always Ready” Soldiers received starting grid coordinates, a map, a compass, a protractor and four points to find. During the first iteration the Soldiers operated in buddy teams, during a second iteration they had to navigate alone, said Spc. Billy L. Phillips, a human resources specialist assigned to the 21st TSC’s 1st Human Resources Sustainment Command.
“At first getting through the terrain in the woods was difficult, but as we became more comfortable with what we were doing it got easier to find our points,” Phillips said. “I think this training is going to help all of us when we get to WLC. Having this knowledge and experience will lead us to success.”
