training

Back to the Basics, Land Navigation, and Pace Count

We’ve been getting back to the A-B-Cs of basic skills and in particular, Land Navigation in recent days. There was an article recently on the web that stated that junior NCOs were struggling with a map and compass.

And if that is an issue with the regular Army, or in the case of this particular article, with the Infantry soldiers, then the trickle-down effect will probably be seen in the Selection courses in the Army, most especially with SFAS (Special Forces Selection and Assessment).

So with this in mind, we’re going back to the basics and hitting on and revisiting all of the topics that generally give candidates the most issues in helping them prepare for SFAS. Three of the biggest issues that stop candidates from being selected are Physical Fitness preparation, Rucking, and Land Navigation. We’ve begun to delve back into the different facets of Land Nav. As a refresher to those who have a good grasp of it already and as a teaching point for those candidates who do not.

SFAS will combine all three of those issues in the very early days of the course, as candidates will be running for time, rucking and then join the three into the Land Navigation course, known as the Star Course in Hoffman, right outside of Camp Mackall. It is the toughest Land Nav course in the military.

The key to passing Land Navigation and the course, in general, is easy. It is to properly prepare yourself. And failure to properly prepare is preparing to fail.

But as we’ve stated, the biggest failure is the failure to prepare. If you are properly prepared, there is no reason you can’t do what thousands of Special Operations Forces troops before you have accomplished. It is more of a mental block than anything else.

Everyone has heard the horror stories of the Star course. Yes, the course is tough, it is the toughest individual land navigation course you’ll find in the US military. But it isn’t anything a cool head and a prepared candidate can’t pass. Thousands passed before you will attempt it and thousands more will in the future.

So, without further ado, we are on to one of the most basic of skills in moving during navigation, and that is your pace count.

Having an Accurate Pace Count is Very Important:

To be successful during the land navigation course requires, plotting the points accurately, planning a good route (which we touched on yesterday) and having an accurate pace count. Accurate being the definitive word here. In certain geographical areas, with very distinct terrain features, your pace count isn’t as important because you can pinpoint your location by identifying the surrounding terrain. But in places like Hoffman where terrain features are very indistinct, knowing your pace is very important because the distances you have traveled will have to be accounted for constantly.

The first thing you must do is to 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 are near a track or a lined football field, you can use that and then just take a spool of 550 cord and mark out 100 meters and put some knots in it or tape it to keep the correct distance You’ll thank me later.

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

Now take your 550 cord out into 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 complete this exercise again for a third time in the woods but with a rucksack on and repeat the steps in rough hilly terrain, day and night. Your pace count should increase dramatically with a heavy rucksack on especially once you start hitting hills and thicker vegetation.

Remember, if you plan to use your Ranger beads to measure the distance every time you travel 100 meters, then prepare the string accordingly. Slide the lowest bead to the bottom. Most of them come with nine beads on the cord. After you slide nine of the beads down, the next 100 meters brings you to a klick (1000 meters), and you can push them all back up to the top. I highly 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.

Remember this…your pace count is just a piece of the puzzle. You have to plot your points correctly and get an azimuth to where you are going. Your pace count should give you a very good reference point as well as using terrain association off of your map.

A couple of things to consider, when the weather turns on you, and it will, the rain, snow or sleet will cause you to take shorter steps and increase your pace count, especially at night. Exhaustion will do the same thing. 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 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 an SF 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.

Pace Count Tips:

Here’s 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. If any of your fellow students or training partners have been in either the Ranger Regiment or an Airborne or Light Infantry unit, they’ll probably have some experience doing this.

It is a great way to check your pace and see how close you come to your plotted points. By the time you finish Selection and the subsequent qualification course, you’ll find you pace counts and distances are coming really close to the distances when you plot them on your maps.

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, when navigating, keeping an accurate pace count is not only a helpful aid but essential. If you find that you’ve drifted on the course, the distance traveled will definitely help get back on track and find your points.

Failure to prepare will result in course failure. And getting lost is the ultimate embarrassment. That will get you a red face when the cadre has to search for you and usually ends up with the candidate doing the long walk to the trucks back to Ft. Bragg. The last thing you want is to do the duffle bag drag back to Bragg.

We’ll get to some more Land Navigation tips and some important Map Reading do’s and don’ts in some of our upcoming articles soon.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me [email protected] or Tweet them to me (@SteveB7SFG) and I’ll be happy to answer them.

Photo courtesy of US Army

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 9, Day 6

Friday morning gym day and what better way to kick the weekend off than with Leg Day. Starting with Squats – front, dumbbell goblet, and barbell, then some lunges and after the weighted sled push. This will build up the strength and endurance to carry the rucksack. And we’ll finish the workout off with a five-mile run in 40 minutes or less.

UBRR Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR.

3 x Front Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x Goblet Dumbbell Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x 10 Barbell Rear Squats

3 x 10 Deadlifts

3 x 10 Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 10 Romanian Lunges

3 x Weighted sled push (heavier weight) or Fireman’s Carry

5-mile run (40 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Getting Back to Land Nav Basics – Plotting and Planning Your Routes

So, last week we touched on a subject that is in the news about how junior NCOs (E-4 – E-6) aren’t doing well overall with navigation with a map, protractor, and compass. As we mentioned prior, Land Navigation is a critical skill that every Special Operator must possess and if you are an aspiring member of the Special Forces Regiment

If you are an 18X enlistee, new to the Army or are a junior NCO who isn’t a natural at Land Navigation then you should really pay attention because the course for SFAS and SFQC students located in Hoffman, NC is no joke.

You’ll hear horror stories about many of the Special Operations courses and the specific gates or events that are legendary…and hard. Some are not-so-bad while others are legitimately very difficult to pass. The “Star Course” is one of the latter.

However, it is far from impossible, thousands of SF troops have passed it before you and thousands more will pass in the future. It just requires a mastery of the basics, a cool head at planning and conducting your routes and attention to detail.

Ready? Let’s jump back in this with both feet.

Plotting Your First Point:

In our last post, we went over and we’ve checked and then double-checked our location so that you know exactly where you are starting from. Now you plot your first point (which is where you are going) in the exact same way.

Read to the right and up and using the 1/50,000 map scale, carefully plot your eight-digit grid coordinate to where you are going. Remember, four-digit grids will get you to within 1000 meters, six-digit grids to within 100 meters and an eight-digit grid will get you to within 10 meters. Double check your plot and ensure you’ve got it right.

Now measure the distance between the two points. Remember this is straight line distance and not walking distance. Your actual traveling distance will vary widely from point to point depending upon your route selection and the terrain that you’ll encounter.

Planning the Route:

There are two basic ways you can get to where you’re going. Either will get you to where you’re going but for your purposes in SFAS, one may prove to be a better option. A word to the wise here, use some common sense here. Don’t go with what everyone else is doing, always do what is right for you and what you feel most comfortable with.

Dead Reckoning – Is arguably the easiest system to use, if the terrain and distance allow it. Dead reckoning is done in two steps. The first step is getting an azimuth from your starting point using your map and protractor and determine the distance to where your point is located at.

The next step is to convert your grid azimuth to a magnetic and use your compass and your pace count and apply what you’ve already learned. You then walk to your point by staying as close as you can to your azimuth.

Your position can be checked from time to time using both resection or intersection when the terrain features are available. Dead Reckoning has some advantages; it is easy to teach the neophyte navigator and in open terrain, especially in grassy areas or desert type regions, it is easier to stay on the azimuth. It works well also when the distances to be covered are short.

In open terrain and if you can pick out a spot on your azimuth, far in the distance, it makes for an easier walk as the navigator can then put his compass away and move quickly to that point.

A distinct disadvantage of this method is when you’re facing the terrain you’ll be subjected to in the Hoffman area. Thick vegetation, intermittent streams, draws and swampy areas make Dead Reckoning a rather difficult method. Some of the thickets and thick vegetation of Hoffman can really slow you down.

However, it can and does work. I know several SF guys who plowed thru the Land Nav course using this exact method. I wouldn’t recommend this but it can be done, albeit like a bull in a china shop. But perhaps the second method is the better way to go.

Terrain Association – Is a more difficult way to plan but is much less forgiving of mistakes and as a rule a helluva lot less time consuming than Dead Reckoning. It requires a more detailed map study of where you’re going and how you plan to get there but the time spent planning your movement is better served than trying to plow your way thru the draws and thickets.

The advantages of terrain association are obvious. If you veer off course in Dead Reckoning, you can be in trouble. But by using terrain association, your position is easily checked and adjustments made on the fly and most importantly while moving..

Selection and identification of terrain features are the keys here to successful planning. Plan your route using handrails as a guide and ensure to plot checkpoints along the way. Ensure your map is oriented and use the available terrain as a guide. You won’t be following a specific azimuth per se, but more of a cardinal direction to your checkpoints using your map to guide you.

You can use the roads both the improved and the unimproved as a guide but the best advice is to remember the rules. If the cadre members tell you not to use them…don’t. Parallel the roads but not too closely. Make sure that plot a backstop on your route that you can identify as having gone too far.

A word of caution about the roads in Hoffman. There a lot of them out there, and many are not on the map. And as you become more familiar with it during your practice navigation exercises, many will become easier to spot. You’ll become familiar with “Five Points” and some others but for the most part, those are at times difficult to judge. Just be careful.

Always remember and the instructors will drill it into your head, that if you come upon a hardball road. Stop. You won’t be crossing any of those in the course but a few of the points may be near them so you can use those as a handrail at times.

But just as surely as the national deficit is going to rise, someone in your class is going to cross a hardball road. It used to happen in every class and don’t be surprised to hear about it from the other students. Just don’t be that guy, Ned the Navigator.

Ensure that you plot checkpoints along the way to ensure that you are on track and on target. Choose an attack point that will put you no farther than 200-300 meters from your point. When you arrive there, double check your location and then that is the time to use dead reckoning and plot an azimuth to your point.

We’re almost ready to head out and practice some hands-on training. Remember everything you have learned and the best advice is to practice, practice and practice some more. The more comfortable you are using your map, compass, and skills at terrain association now, the easier the course will be for you.

I’ve said this before but it bears mentioning again. Before you head to SFAS, if you’re not entirely comfortable with navigating 5-6 clicks and finding a green engineer stake on the ground, then check out a local orienteering club. They can be a great learning resource and provide outstanding practice and practical application.

In our next piece, we’ll explore some of the tools to help you double check your way.

Photo courtesy of DOD

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 9, Day 5

Chest and Triceps workout at the gym today before a 5-mile run. Shoot for a time below the standard of 40 minutes. Therefore remember to stretch well before and after and to stay hydrated. And be sure to mark your progress down in your workout log book.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Bench Press

3 x 10 Dumbbell Flies

3 x 10 Dumbbell Incline press

3 x 20 Pushups (alternate sets with wide, narrow and shoulder width)

3 x 10 Kip Ups

3 x 20 Sit-ups

3 x 20 Cable Push Downs (rope)

3 x 20 Dips or until muscle failure

5-mile run (40-minute maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 9, Day 4

Time to head over to the gym for some shoulder and back work. As we mentioned in another post, these shoulder workouts help in rucking, especially once in Selection. Be sure to log the progress down in your workout log book.

And because Wednesday is one of our rucking days, strap on a 45-pound minimum weight ruck and conduct a 6-miler over varied terrain. Wear your second pair of boots to ensure that they’re well broken-in for the course as well. And be wary of the mud on the trail today, yesterday I was slippin’ and slidin’ all over the place. Strive to better the time that is the standard (90-minutes) and remember to hydrate throughout the march.

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, behind the neck (go as heavy as possible)

3 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, front

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Front Raises

3 x 10 Dumbbell Arnold Press

3 x 8 Shoulder Shrugs

6-mile Rucksack march (45-pound minimum, 90-minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 9, Day 2

We’ll kick off our Monday and work week and crush those weekend cobwebs with a mini-UBRR test. Start off with the basics of pushups, sit-ups, and crunches, then to the bar for V-ups, pull-ups, and dips before a 5-mile run. The standard says 40-minutes but shoot for something better than that.

Remember to stay hydrated and mark your progress in your workout log book.

UBRR Training:

More preparation for the UBRR

1 x 1-minute Pushups

1 x 1-minute Sit-ups

1 x 1-minute, Crunches

1 x 1-minute, V-ups

1 x Dips as many as possible to muscle failure (no time limit)

1 x Pullups as many as possible or to muscle failure (no time limit)

5-mile run (40-minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 9, Day 1

It is time for our Sunday morning Rucksack march. Do a quick warmup of pushups and sit-ups before heading out for an 8-mile rucksack march. Head out over varied terrain and try to go as fast as you can without running. The standard is 120 minutes. Aim to lower that

Stretch well both before and after the event. Remember to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated out there. Might be a little soggy one this morning…especially if you live on the East Coast.

UBRR Training:

Warm up

2 x 20 Pushups

2 x 20 Sit-ups

8-mile Rucksack march over varied terrain with a 45-pound minimum in 120 minutes (2 hours) or less. And mark your times in your workout log book.

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 7

Saturday morning in the gym for shoulders and back work. Towel pull-ups are for those with no access to ropes. The only way to get better at pull-ups and climbing ropes….is to practice doing them until they are a strength. Followed by a four-mile run in 32 minutes or less.

Log your numbers down in the workout notebook and remember to stretch well both before and after the workout.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 10 Lat Pulldowns, rear

3 x 10 Barbell Dead Lift

3 x 10 Wide Grip Pull-ups

3 x 10 Towel Pull-ups

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Seated Bent-Over Delt Raise

3 x 10 Dumbbell Shoulder Press

3 x 10 Arnold Dumbbell Press

4-mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 8, Day 6

Friday means another Leg Day at the gym. Begin with some Squats – front, dumbbell goblet, and barbell to build up strength for carrying a rucksack. We’re going with a lighter weight and more reps here.

Then some lunges and after the weighted sled push/Fireman’s Carry, finish the workout off by breaking things up a bit with some sprints for cardio.

UBRR Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR.

3 x Front Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x Goblet Dumbbell Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x 10 Barbell Squats

3 x 10 Deadlifts

3 x 10 Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 10 Romanian Lunges

3 x Weighted sled push (heavier weight) or Fireman’s Carry

10 x 50-meter sprints

Stretch well after completion

Too Many Junior Army Leaders Can’t Navigate, A Bad Sign

A recent piece in MilitaryTimes stated that many of the young sergeants in most infantry and close-combat units don’t know how to maneuver their squads or do basic land navigation. For “soft skill” MOS’ that isn’t necessarily a show stopper, but for the infantry and combat arms types, that is a very bad sign that units aren’t doing proper training for their soldiers and leaders. For Special Operations troops, this lack of training will have a trickle-down effect.

Last week we posted a piece about a soldier who was akin to “Ned the Navigator” and got lost on a Land Nav course. This, however, is no laughing matter.

If conventional infantry units aren’t doing proper training for their soldiers, when they become junior leaders, fire-team leaders, and squad leaders, then they, in turn, can’t properly train their soldiers. And it snowballs.

According to the same Military.com piece by Matthew Cox, the Army’s Noncommissioned Officer Academy is seeing sergeants routinely show up for courses unable to pass a basic land navigation course using a map and compass.

Those courses are a piece of cake compared to what they’ll see in Special Forces. The “Star Course” that SF candidates must pass is easily the toughest land navigation course in the Army and arguably the toughest in the military as a whole.

The majority of Special Forces candidates that fail at Selection and Assessment (SFAS) do so at Land Navigation and it requires every candidate to be on top of his… or her game. And if the E-4s, E-5s, and E-6s can’t do basic navigation at an NCO Academy they have next to zero chance of passing the Star course in Hoffman.

An example of this was back in the day when I went thru the Warrant Officer’s Candidate Course. There were a handful of Special Forces NCOs, a couple of CID NCOs and a whole bunch of high-school to flight school kids who wanted to fly Blackhawks. The CID guys didn’t have much practical experience with maps and compasses, so it was up to us to help out the class.

The cadre played up the difficulty of the course and told horror stories of so many candidates getting lost out in the forest and getting dropped from the course. The SF guys looked at one another and we knew there was no way this could be anywhere near the difficulty as we experienced at Camp Mackall. It wasn’t.

If memory serves right, we had a five-hour window in which to find all of our points and successfully return to the start/finish point. In less than an hour, the SF guys started trotting in. I arrived seconds before my best bud Wade Chapple, who was a frequent target of our Senior Tac Officer. “Are you lost Chapple?” the Senior Tac yelled. With a shit-eating grin, Wade answered, “no sir…just done.”

They checked over our scorecards where we had to mark down each of the points we found. “How is it you finished so fast,” the tac asked. “We’re trained to move out much farther and much faster with a ruck on our backs,” Wade said. “We ran to our points.”

The cadre seemed incredulous that someone can run thru the woods and navigate at the same time…they shouldn’t have. Thousands of SF troops who passed Land Nav at Camp Mackall have done just that. This was nothing more than a glorified compass course which most NCO Academy’s are.

According to cadre at the Henry Caro NCO Academy at Ft. Benning, GA, home of the Army’s Infantry, stated that 30 percent of the NCOs that show up can’t pass the diagnostic dismounted Land Navigation Course. That course is geared toward Skill Level 1 tasks. Many of the NCOs who failed to find the requisite 4-out-of-5 points said that they hadn’t practiced with a map, compass, and protractor for years in their units. That is flat-out wrong.

After my active duty career was over, I worked as a contractor and saw that the troops headed for Iraq were far too dependent on GPS and there was a definitive lack of map reading training taking place.

While that is fine in a counter-insurgency environment in Third World countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, for example, but with the military services transitioning now to a large scale conventional battlefield against a foe of equal strength such as Russia or China, the threat of them blocking or jamming our GPS signals is very real. What happens then?

The Big Army is not doing right by its soldiers and NCOs in this case. Brigade and Battalion commanders have to cut back to the typical ash and trash details and let combat soldiers go back to train to succeed in what they’re supposed to do.

NCOs are the backbone of the military services; when their training and technical competence isn’t up to par, the entire unit’s tactical and technical proficiency will suffer. Get the troops back to the basics and teach them the old way of “Shoot, move and communicate.”

We’re not even going to touch on the fact that most NCOs couldn’t hit their targets with iron sights, as they’ve become too dependent on optics…

Who’s ready to go to Land Navigation this week? It may be time to revisit some of our basic Land Navigation and Map Reading tasks in the very near future.

Photo: US Army