Land Navigation

Photo By Jovi Prevot | Mississippi Army National Guard Spc. Katesa D. Dear, a human resources specialist assigned to Headquarters Company, 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team, finds coordinates on a map during a premobilization training exercise at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center, Miss., Feb. 21, 2018. The 155 ABCT is preparing for an upcoming for an upcoming deployment to the Middle East in support of Operation Spartan Shield. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Spc. Jovi Prevot)  

CAMP SHELBY, MS, UNITED STATES

02.21.2018

Story by Sgt. Brittany Johnson 

155th Armored Brigade Combat Team

Mississippi Guardsmen assigned to Headquarters Company, 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team, conducted land navigation training at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center to sharpen their basic Soldiering skills, Feb. 21, 2018.
“We received a refresher course on land navigation this morning,” said Sgt. Jalen Portis, an information technology specialist assigned to Headquarters Company, 155th ABCT.
“We revisited reading maps and plotting points using the protractor” said Portis. “It’s important to know land navigation because when you’re in the field you need to be able to pinpoint exactly where certain things are needed and troops need to go.”
While overseas, it’s possible that they could end up in a situation where they don’t have a GPS, said Sgt. 1st Class Jacob Alexander, a telecommunications operations chief with Headquarters Company, 155th ABCT.
“It’s important to make sure you have the knowledge and skills that you probably learned as a younger Soldier, so that if you were in that situation you’d be able to make it back without having to rely on technology that we use today,” said Alexander.
Modern technology helps them so much that it’s easy for Soldiers to forget some of the basic skills of taking a map, compass, and protractor and navigating from point a to point b, said 1st Sgt. Joseph Lee, the senior enlisted noncommissioned officer assigned to Headquarters Company, 155th ABCT.
The Soldiers received a refresher class on basic land navigation followed by a practical exercise where they were given four-points to plot as they went to the field and had an hour to find them.
“If we understand the principles of how to do this manually, we can appreciate what the technology is doing for us,” said Lee. “It’s also important to know the fundamentals and the basics, before you just blindly trust technology.”
Soldiers with the 155th ABCT continue training hard to insure they are proficient in their basic soldiering skills and effective everything they do, both at home and abroad.

• Date Taken: 02.21.2018
• Date Posted: 02.25.2018 10:17
• Story ID: 267101
• Location: CAMP SHELBY, MS, US