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.