Photo By Sgt. Christopher Johnston | A Humvee stops at a marker during a mounted land navigation training exercise...... read more read more
CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait- Soldiers of the 203rd Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, conducted a mounted land navigation training exercise Aug. 17, at Camp Buehring, Kuwait.
Terrain navigation has been a deciding factor of battles since the organization of armies. Knowing the terrain and the ability to move one’s forces has won more wars than sheer numbers and weapons.
During the Revolutionary War, the U.S. forces were severely outnumbered and outgunned but fought on familiar terrain.
The first Marne soldiers of World War I, from which the 3rd ID soldiers draw their namesake, moved their forces using maps and compasses; the technology of their time. They participated in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, part of the final Allied offensive which included American Expeditionary Forces and French forces. They were able to coordinate movements across the entire western front of the war, using nothing more than these analog tools.
The Blue Force Tracker and the Defense Advanced GPS Receiver are the technologies of today’s Sledgehammer soldiers.
“The BFT is a great tool,” said Pfc. Justin D. Green, a radio and communications security repairer and Plantation, Fla., native assigned to the 203rd BSB. “It tells you where you are, and also tells you where your enemies and friends are, and the routes to get where you are going.”
The BFT communicates with every other vehicle equipped with a BFT to determine where friendly forces are on the battlefield. Satellites gather information about the terrain that can be programmed into a BFT as a map overlay. Soldiers get eyes-on intelligence of the location, movement and size of enemy forces. All this information is constantly transmitted, monitored and relayed to individual elements, essentially creating a shared perception of the battlefield.
“This is great training for these soldiers,” said Sgt. 1st Class Anthony R. Gordon, a motor transport operator, Bullard, Texas, native and non-commissioned officer in charge of the training. “They are learning level-one map reading that goes hand-in-hand with the BFT and DAGR, combined with being mounted in their vehicles.”
“None of the soldiers in my truck have deployed before,” said Staff Sgt. David J. Branshaw, a health care specialist and Phoenix native assigned to the 203rd BSB. “As medics, we work a little more independently. In a real world mission with only grid coordinates, I need them to be able to locate their mission and return safely.”
Although today’s Army has high-tech instruments to assist them on the battlefield, such as BFTs and DAGRs, soldiers cannot be completely reliant upon them. A dependency on technology would leave the Army ineffective in the absence of it, which is unacceptable according to many leaders throughout the military.
“Map reading is a basic skill that if not practiced will erode,” said Branshaw. “When everything else technologically fails, simple map orientation could be the difference between life and death. It is a skill we as NCOs have a duty and responsibility to keep current in our soldiers.”
| Date Taken: | 08.17.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 08.24.2012 08:21 |
| Story ID: | 93732 |
| Location: | CAMP BUEHRING, KW |
| Web Views: | 338 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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