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Saturday, February 28, 2015
Mapping stories
Mapping stories
The chance of you getting an orienteering style map to use for
military operations is about zero.
Now do pay attention to your training about grid zone maps. Even
in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the major battle areas were at the junctions of the
two grid zones, so one place could have two different grids, like one red and
one black back then. Even an RPV could take off in one grid zone, and report
locations using another grid zone. It got real confusing. It even affected the
lives of Americans, too.
Now a standard USA military map is at scale 1:50,000 which means
it is lacking a lot of information you are use to seeing on an orienteering
map. Now if you end up using Brit type maps, they can be at scales of
1:100,000, so get use to that, too. They often have even less detail. Now I
have never had to use Russian maps, but the ones I got from Mozambique for a
safari guy (former South African SAS) were like at 1:200,000, also. I thought
they were crummy, but compared to nothing they were OK.
And if you are lucky, you might come across 1:25,000 scale US
military maps.
Now where roads for armor vehicle crossings have bridges, do learn
the codes. When we went into the
Balkans, many of the bridges could not handle the weight of the heavy Army
armor, and so other lighter forces went in, instead. The maps will often show
this.
When we invaded Grenada, the Marines had to use tourist type maps
just to get around.
Do learn how to scale aerial photos for grids and azimuths at a
minimum. Like be able to teach that to others, too. That is one reason we have
officers. And an aerial photo taken at an oblique is especially challenging to
use, but sometimes that is all you have.
Last, learn how to construct a reasonably accurate sand table or
paper mache models. That helped me once in Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba
(during a short notice position occupation) , for example.
Life during hard times
Life during hard times
I never thought of it (the suffering from the recent ice storm) as
courage. Now I did think of it as “the put up with it factor”.
Said another way, all one does is “hunker down” until things get
better. Now that does take patience, I freely admit.
So having some good books to read sure seems like a good idea
these days. Now I have many, but think I will get some more, too.
I may be closer to a dog than I thought.
And the pansy factor now kicks in. Even I would heat my MRE once
using wood stove heat, and while I ate it in the dark, I also still don’t know
what I ate for sure, other than it sure seemed like food to me. In the old days
I would just eat it cold, but again that was another earlier time that no
longer appeals to me.
I am glad my son who came to help got to learn about our ancestors
the hard way. He would probably disagree with that statement, but the heck with
him. I can be a charity taking ungrateful wretch, too.
My guess is that we are at least a century away before all the
ancestor skills are lost.
So my “living museum” idea is at best nothing but a
postponement of hard times learning, which surely will come again.
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