Military grid reference system

Military grid reference system

       A wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_grid_reference_system

Poster's comments:  

As one who has used this system for quite a while, a quick summary is that the theory is better than the practical use. A key area is where two grid zones overlap, and one point has two MGRS designations (like read red or read black). Many battles are at the junctions of two "grid zones", like in the Kuwait area of Desert Storm.

Even where I live today in east Tennessee, often one location may have two different names, like Verble Falls and Roaring Falls. So just be aware of the possibility when describing a location.

Last, there is still no "universally" accepted way to label a location in civilian terms. So it can get confusing, especially for the novice GPS users in the USA these days in 2013, and who shares locations, like a hunting stand. The differences are usually 100 meters or so, but it can get to errors of miles.

For one example, one hopes the B-52 fellows bombing in the night about 5 KM away and my unit were on the same sheet of music (we were I think). Even the 5 KM distance (about 3 miles) was still pretty "exciting" to those on the ground. I assume the actual separation distance was 5 KM, but don't really know for sure, and never will, including that we were even in the correct location.