Strongest soldier in army gym

He was pulling your chain. While they most likely "introduce" cadets at the Academy or even NROTC outfits to the Sextant and other outdated and ancient methods of navigation, ships use SAT's and something called SINS. Ships Internal Navigation System. Many times when aircraft couldn't get the INS to spin up, we connected the SINS via a cable and synchronized.

The US Navy does not use a Sextant at all with the possible exception of Midshipman training.

 

Actually, it is not even that.

Want to be a ship captain with International Licenses, you have to prove you can use a sextant. Want to be a navigator, you have to show you can use one. Along with most licensed positions above the engine room and galley.

And a working sextant is still required to be carried on all ocean going commercial ships, along with the charts of where they are planning on making a port call and the routes there. This is still required to this day internationally, even if they have the most advanced GPS and inertial navigation systems in the world.

It has nothing to do with "Russian spoofing", it is because the sea is unforgiving. And if something goes down with the GPS system (which has happened before and will happen again), then you had better have a backup.

And if you plan on a career with the Navy, you better plan on getting the Surface Warfare badge. And the Surface Warfare qualifications are going through huge changes at this time. And one of the requirements when they finalize it is the ability to use a sextant.

 

uber drivers can't read road maps, if there were an EMP they would be unable to navigate.

 

Most people under 30 can not read maps anymore. People laugh when they look in my car and still see paper maps. But I know I do not really need them, I mostly keep them in case of a detour.

 

Hard to gain muscle mass on C-rats and iodine water.

imo wiry strong and agile is better in all terrains -- mountains, savannah, marsh, swamp, coniferous forest, deciduous forest, rain forest, jungle, snow, high desert, dead desert -- with polar being the only exception where a substantial layer of fat is good.

 

Gain, no. But you need it in order to get through things like that.

One thing I got used to was how my weight would go up and down as I was in the field. In a 2 week field exercise, it was not unusual to drop 5-10 pounds, as I used up my store of body fat doing the intense and endurance required tasks I had to do. Then back in garrison I would put it back on in a week or two, just to burn it off again during the next field exercise.

And no, agile is not all that great if the person is unable to tap into those reserves. I do not care if it is the swamp, jungle, desert, or mountains. And remember, those that got trapped at Chosin had already survived a year of bloody fighting, including jungle, forest, and mountains.

 

Indeed. I can find MAPSCO's at Half_Price Books for $10 or so; after a week or so of heavy use, you can usually go right to the page you need and have a good idea of most of the main throughfares and what the likely traffic conditions are at various times of the day, no need for a high dollar satellite system and gear, that is also full of errors in most cases. Buy the brand new one and it will still be useful for a couple years or more. How much did it cost to have GPS? Someone familiar with MAPSCO's can also find where they're going a lot faster and spend less time than using GPS anyway.

Outdoors? Even the Boy Scouts had a handy little compass utility that worked great, with a little knowledge of astronomy. No batteries required, humidity no problem either, EMP? Who cares?

 

Hell, just ask any long-time Angelino how we navigated prior to then, I can guarantee we all will give you the exact same answer.

Thomas Guide.



And yes, Rand-McNally has since bought them and killed them since paper is now obsolete. But in all of Southern California that was how we navigated for decades.

Hell, in the 1980's it was common to even have a commercials and songs give out the page and grid number of a location right from the Thomas Guide. They were that universal. And I was actually shocked when I moved to the Bay Area in 1990, and realize that was really only an LA thing. They made traditional paper maps of that area, but not the iconic book I was familiar with.

Rand-McNally bought the company in 1999, and in 2004 they stopped publishing the classic "Book". And even to this day they fetch good prices at used book stores.

 

Yes. I bought a Thomas Guide first thing when I moved to the Bay area in 1995. MAPSCO's were the more popular brand here in Texas when I first found out about them. They used to have their own outlet stores here, with books for cities and counties. A must for delivery drivers in their day. I still use mine to this day, keep one for both ends of the Metroplex in the car at all times. They still put out the paper versions here, haven't lived in CA or Oregon since 1998 so have no idea what they use out there now. I know PRIME delivery drivers don't use them, anyway; they use satellite. But, I would bet any amount I can find a local street and address faster with a MAPSCO and beat them there.

 

Field exercise? WTF is that? In all seriousness, all we get acclimated to is our survival training we do after pilot training. I can’t even say I learned anything about surviving in the woods of Washington state (which is unlike any climate I have ever been deployed to), other than trying to get captured because I got diarrhea so bad that dying in captivity was better.

 

Is something the Infantry and other combat arms do. Going to the field and operating in a simulated combat environment for 1-3 weeks.

For me, that generally meant marching 20 miles or so in 5-6 hours, then doing operations that normally involved combat patrols for 12 hours or so, sleeping for 4-6 hours, then getting up the next day and yet another 5-10 mile forced march to our new operating area. Rinse and repeat for a week or more. Then a 15 mile or so march back to the barracks for a weekend off. A week or two there to recover and then do it all over again.

And every year or two doing it in another environment. I was stationed in North Carolina for 5 years. But also did operations in Panama (jungle), California (mountain-winter warfare), Virginia (amphibious warfare), and California again (desert warfare). Imagine doing SERE multiple times a year. For us, that was just part of the job.