my in cab nav is super tricked out.
to the east is where the sun rises, to west is where it sets. the big dipper in the night sky points north.
a needle, pin, or wire magnetized by rubbing it on my head and placed on a leaf in water points north.
I know its ultra high tech. and its the best way I know of.
Heh, theres a very good reason why I need it.
You see, last week when my platoon was doing a movement to contact, 6 clicks away from objective eagle, a target house containing suspected AQI attached to a local VBIED and kidnapping cell were alerted. At Phase line orange, that 6 click mark, we had an RPK and RPG-7's waiting for us along with grapeshot charged coffee cans aimed at our dismounted element. They took us by surprise, we had to battle drill two the hell out of there! Breaking contact was the only way...As I was trying to keep my controlled pairs through my PQ2 on my targets my extractor pin broke on my M4, my navigational skills was the only thing I could rely on!
The only thing I had was my M2 Lensatic Compass, I pulled out my map and found our last known location, but to my disappointment I couldn't find out where we were, we had deviated almost a click off our original grid, which way! Oh crap, no distinct terrain features to do a resection with. No slopping terrain...I couldn't even do a box method...I needed a grid and I needed a grid fast. The suppressive fire coming from the enemy's kill team was hammering down on us, we were out of range from our own indirect, air was red so the birds couldn't fly and our 240's had run out of ammo, was this the end? From out of the blue came Rogers from 2nd Squad, Alpha Team with a brand new Kenwood DNX 7100 all in one DVD/CD/MP3 Navigation system, NIB. I pulled it out, turned it on, and got a fix on our location. I Popped a smoke for some concealment and led my platoon out of the ambush.
But in all seriousness, I do need navigation, hopping from base to base in the states doesn't allow me to get to know the roads and places to well.
