Re: Map-Using, was Re: Pistol Replacement

["Steve Kuervers" <skuervers@hotmail.com>]

Agree totally Michael.
You may be sad to find out that Scotty Dog wood no longer looks like it's 
namesake after the new maps have come out.  Just sort of a blob of trees 
nowadays.
Steve
PS:  Locating gunners have to know our way around by contours extremely 
well.  I was taught by my NCOs... "OK Sir, you've been in the back of the CP 
for this hour-long road move, get out and tell me where we are within 3 
minutes".  Amazing what being put on the spot will do for you.
>From: "Michael O'Leary" <moleary@bmts.com>
>Reply-To: army@cipherlogic.on.ca
>To: army@cipherlogic.on.ca
>Subject: Map-Using, was Re: Pistol Replacement
>Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2021 21:27:45 -0400
>
<SNIP>
>It seems that map-using is the ultimate OJT event, with foreseeable
>results. And as a rule, it is those officers (or NCOs) who are required to
>use their maps in everyday execution of their duties that eventually learn
>the necessary skills to do it well: gunners and mortarmen (usually), recce
>(when they're being recce and not just posing with a tank-hunting knife
>strapped upsidedown to their web gear), the air observers were damn good at
>it (but only at 120 kph). Too many others depended on the few naturals in
>their midst, content to follow in convoy or to simply follow the well-worn
>tracks from "Square Wood" to the "Scotty Dog" beacuse that's where the next
>objective always is, without concsiously following the contours or reading
>the ground.
>
>This is why the RV series was so good for the army's small unit comanders
>(section/TC/detachment to coy/sqn/bty). It put pretty well everyone on new
>terrain. And when it was run in Suffield, they old pros didn't have the
>luxury of just driving from one treeline to the next. As a young mortar
>platoon second-in-command on RV 85 doing recce, baseplate preparations, and
>leading in the OP parties when necessary, it was where I suddenly realized
>I was reading my map, rather than just following the roads and woodlines (a
>lucky combination of nervous sweat, hard work and damn good NCOs in the
>platoon to watch over me). I certainly wasn't taught that degree of
>map-using in training, and the package hasn't changed since then.
>
>mike
>
<SNIP>
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