Preparing for Selection

SOF Selection PT Preparation 3.18.2017

Continue to prep for the UBRR and get a long rucksack march in, before enjoying your weekend and a bit of a break on Sunday.

Training:

3 x Military Press (heavy dumbbells) 20 reps, 15, 12
3 x Shoulder lateral raises (heavy dumbbells) 20 reps, 15, 12
3 x Shoulder front raises (medium to light dumbbells) 20 reps, 15, 12
3 x Lat machine pull-downs rear 20 reps,15, 12
3 x Seated rows 20 reps, 15, 12
10-mile rucksack march as fast as you can without ruck-running

Stretch well after completion

SOF Selection PT Preparation 3.16.2017

Back out on the rucking trails today. This week we’ll try a few different things to break it up.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

100 pushups (no time limit)

100 situps (no time limit)

100 crunches

Rucksack march: Go as hard and as fast as you can for 1 hour. Do this without running. See what your distance is and make a notation. This will give a goal to achieve in later training sessions.

Stretch well after completion

Passing SFAS – Land Navigation Tips for Finding Your Way in Hoffman

So, you’ve volunteered to be in Special Forces and you’re getting ready to go to SFAS. This is the time to prepare yourself for the grind that is to come. There are certain tips, such as the PT program which will help you attain the level of physical fitness that you’ll need to not just pass the course but to excel where the course isn’t as tough as you’ll see other people struggling.

Now, we get to the elephant in the room, the Land Navigation course and many students fail at either SFAS or the SFQC because they failed the land navigation course. The course is tough, it is the toughest individual land navigation course you’ll find in the US military.

In previous segments, we touched on Map reading, pace count, orienting the map and plotting your starting location as well as your point. Now we need to get to our points. Here are some of the tips for walking the course in the Hoffman area.

Fold Your Map – Sounds like a no-brainer but it is simple and saves a ton of time without having to unfold your map every time you want to make a map check. Fold it down to where it fits perfectly in your map case so that only the part you are traveling shows, it simplifies your task immeasurably. This way every time you make a quick check of the map, only where you are and where you are going next is visible.

A technique that many orienteers use while navigating is what they call thumbing. I’ve talked to some and what they do is to keep their thumb on the spot on the map where they are and it speeds in finding where you are while walking and doing a quick map check. The thought being as you walk along you move your thumb slightly forward to reduce the confusion of scanning for your location on the map, especially in the dark.

Navigating Techniques – So, you’ve plotted your starting location, your first point that you’re looking for. You’ve folded the map and placed it and your protractor carefully inside your map case. The next thing you must do orient the map into the direction that you are traveling. Now the terrain is laid out exactly the way it is in front of you.

Weapon tied down? Check. Compass tied down and easily accessible? Check. You should have a red lens flashlight a notebook that will allow you to write in it, even if it is wet in your pocket or map case. Ensure you have all of your gear and do a quick check of the area before you leave and don’t forget anything.

Pull out the compass and take a quick reading. If you can see far enough in the distance, do the cheek hold method where the notch is the rear sight, and the wire is the front sight. Pick out a point as far in the distance as you can and get to it as quickly as you can.

If you’re following a basic azimuth, rotate your bezel ring so that your North seeking arrow aligns with the bubble. So, say if you are traveling on an azimuth of 65 degrees, your North seeking arrow will be in the approximate 10 o’clock position, rotate the bezel ring so the bubble aligns with the North seeking arrow and it is a quick way to keep on your azimuth, especially in the dark. Also, remember that each click in the bezel ring is three degrees.

Remember, to read the red ring which is in degrees and not the black which is in mils.

Trust your map, pace count, and your azimuth as you move out on the course. During the practical exercises in the course, you’ll notice you’ll veer a bit in the dark. Everyone’s perception changes during hours of darkness and it will vary.

As you encounter ways around the draws, you’ll no doubt see where others have tread before you and those well-worn paths are a good indicator that this is the best spot to cross a draw…if you must. But the best rule of thumb for the course is to veer around them if at all possible. But if you do cross one, make sure you check your compass every 20-25 paces. It is so easy to get turned around in those, don’t let it happen to you.

In SFAS an instructor will be present at your points but you’ll no doubt come across green engineer stakes with a dog tag on them. If you do, do yourself a favor and stop and check them out. These are an eight-digit grid coordinate that is built in GPS. There’s no better way to check your location.

Don’t talk to other students. Don’t be a road runner. Nothing will get you in hot water faster than doing those things.

When crossing the roads, the rule of thumb is at a 90-degree angle….and they’ll be watching.

Take advantage of the practical exercises and learn the terrain and the area as best you can. Do try to do the minimum, it will cost you in the end. Talk with other candidates AFTER the course is complete every day and share notes and experiences about what you find on the course. It will come in handy. It is no different than doing a debrief of another unit when planning a mission.

Get used to moving at night and make night movement a breeze. It will serve you well once you get in one of the operational Groups.

Move with a purpose but never out of control. Land Nav is like Selection is to a smaller extent. It can be a lot more difficult if you’re not using your head. Think everything thru and don’t let doubt creep in. Your training will get you thru this. Thousands of students have done it before you and you can too.

You get familiar with a bunch of landmarks out there on the course. I researched thru several social media pages and made note of what different people mentioned. Many of the names remain from my time.
Five Points
Puppy Palace
Lake Baggett
Bones Fork Creek
3 Wire Road…and some new names
Jurassic Park
Scuba Road
Dagobah (I don’t know who named this area in the north, but he deserves an impact award) My personal favorite.

Photo courtesy of DOD

Passing SFAS – Orienting the Map and Pinpointing Your Location

In previous segments, we touched on Map reading and the importance of your pace count. Now we’ll move on to the next step in finding your way around Hoffman. That begins with orienting your map and then plotting your start point on the course.

Prior to Starting Out:
Orienting the Map – This makes map reading and using the available terrain features much easier to read. What does it mean to have the map oriented? The schoolbook answer is: A map is oriented when it is in a horizontal position with its north and south corresponding to the north and south on the ground. In layman’s terms, it means when you’re holding the map in front of you, the terrain matches up exactly as it is shown on the map.

It makes it much harder to try to read your terrain features upside down or sideways. If you are using an Army lensatic compass, remember that a compass measures magnetic North. So, don’t forget your declination diagram which is located on your marginal information at the bottom of your map. Most military issue maps take the guesswork right out of it and tell you how to convert the declination of azimuths from grid to magnetic and from magnetic to grid next to the declination diagram.

It sounds simple but many people mess this up and start off on the wrong foot. Don’t be Ned the Navigator. Take your time and do it right the first time.

With the map in a horizontal position, take the straightedge on the left side of the compass and place it alongside the north-south grid line with the cover of the compass pointing toward the top of the map. This procedure places the fixed black index line of the compass parallel to north-south grid lines of the map.

Keeping the compass aligned as we said in the last paragraph, rotate the map and compass together until the magnetic arrow is below the fixed black index line on the compass. You’re close but not there yet!

Now rotate the map and compass in the direction of the declination diagram.

If the magnetic north arrow on the map is to the left of the grid north, check the compass reading to see if it equals the G-M angle (if memory serves me well it is 8 degrees for the Hoffman area) given in the declination diagram. Voila! The map is now oriented. Take your time and try to pick out the terrain features as they lay out in front of you. Just be advised, in the Hoffman area, the terrain features aren’t as distinct and are a bit harder to distinguish.

In certain areas, you’ll be able to orient your map using terrain features. And when the terrain allows, it is quicker and easier to navigate using the available terrain. If you’ve ever navigated in the mountains, you’ll find this is much easier and you’ll find that this way is much more preferable than dead reckoning. And it definitely comes in handy when having to call for fire in a jiffy…(that is for another time perhaps)

Creating a Start Point – Now the map is oriented in the direction that you’re going to be walking and the next thing is you must create a starting location. The starting point is where you are standing at. Now pull out your handy, dandy Army protractor. But wait.

Don’t lose your protractor, always keep it secured inside your map case until you need it and ensure it is in there before taking off and hitting your points, especially at night! Nothing worse than losing a protractor during land navigation. While you can get by without one, it makes things unnecessarily much harder. So, take the few seconds to check.

Now read the grid lines to the right and up and make sure that you’re using the 1/50,000 scale for the map, which is in the upper right corner of the protractor. That will automatically ensure that the protractor is facing the right way and isn’t flipped over.

Remember a four-digit grid, gets you to within the grid square or 1000 meters. A six-digit grid to within 100 meters and an eight-digit grid gets you within 10 meters. A good rule of thumb to remember is to forget about where the plastic is cut out of the protractor. Always align the 0’s and check it twice. Ensure you plot it twice to get the exact spot.

Now we have a starting point, and the next time out we’ll look at plotting and plan a route.

Photo courtesy DOD

SFAS Getting Yourself Ready: Know Your Pace Count (Part 4)

Read Part 3 here

We talked in the last segment about Map reading and touched upon some of the tasks that you’ll have to be proficient in. Now let’s get into more of the nuts and bolts of navigation.

Pace Count: Knowing your pace is very important because there are going to be times, that you’ll need to know how far you’ve traveled, even if you can read a map like a pro. At times the terrain will dictate that.

First set up a 100-meter course on flat terrain. Walk it three times and every time your left foot hits the ground count it. Take the total number of steps you’ve walked and divide by three. That is your baseline pace count. If you’re on a track or a football field, take a spool of 550 cord and mark out 100 meters. You’ll thank me later.

Now wait until dark and walk the flat course again, three times. Your pace count will probably increase in the dark, keep a notation in your notebook that should always be in your pocket. Mark down what your pace count is for daylight on flat terrain and your night pace count.

Now take your 550 cord out in the woods and try to find some rougher, hilly terrain. Lay out the 550 cord and walk the course again three times in the day and three times in the dark. Did your pace count increase with the difference in terrain? It should have.

Now put a rucksack on and repeat the steps in both the flat terrain and the rough hilly terrain, day and night. Your pace count should increase a bit with a heavy ruck on especially once you start hitting hills and thicker vegetation.

Remember to use your Ranger beads every time you travel 100 meters. Slide the lowest bead to the bottom. Most of them come with nine beads after you slide nine down, the next 100 meters brings you to a klick and you can push them all back up to the top. I recommend using them or making your own out of 550 cord, it is a valuable tool and comes in handy so that you don’t have to remember exactly how far you have to go and how far you’ve gone.

Things to remember if the weather turns to shit, and it will, rain, snow or sleet will cause you to take shorter steps and increase your pace count. So will exhaustion. As you get tired during the course or during a field training exercise, your level of exhaustion will increase your pace count even if moving during daylight hours in fairly open terrain.

In time, you’ll become a seasoned pro at this and will know just by the conditions that you are dealing with what your pace count will be. And it will change over time. My pace with just web gear on flat terrain was 62 back in the days of Phase 1 at Camp Mackall.

But with a rucksack and a heavy load, it went up to 73. But I noticed after I had been in Group for a while and your rucksack becomes a part of your body, my pace counted lessened to between 68-69 depending on conditions. You’ll find that you will have similar results.

Another tip on pace counts. If you plot your point and you have 4 kilometers (klicks) between points, don’t try to keep a pace for the entire distance. Pick out a terrain feature or road intersection as an attack point. Use deliberate offset (More on that later) to find it. Keep your pace count to that attack point and make a notation with a grease pencil on your map case.

It is a great way to check your pace and see how close you come out. By the time you finish SFAS and the SFQC, you’ll find you pace counts and distances are coming really close to the distances when you plot them on your maps.

Remember, keeping a pace count is just an added tool at your disposal. Knowing how to read a map and the surrounding terrain features is an easy way to quickly, and confidently find your way anywhere. And if you can navigate in Camp Mackall, you’ll be able to navigate anywhere.

But failure to keep a pace count can really hurt you if become disoriented, especially in the dark. It is a valuable tool that every successful SFAS candidate should use while you’re out on the course.

So, your boots are good? Check. Got your rucking down pat? Check. Your map reading skills are up to par? Check. And now we have our pace counts down…right?

In our next segment, we’ll continue with some more Land Navigation tips.

Photo courtesy of DOD