I want those of you who don't know or have never done land navigation to get on a bus, have someone drive you 30-60 minutes to drop you off in the middle of nowhere and then take out your handy dandy army issued compass and go find all these points in the woods. You have two hours to find six points on a hilly terrain of about 4 clicks worth of land. Readyyyy? Go!

In all honestly though, it's not that bad. I loved land nav the second time around. My first time was in Fort Drum at JLTX and it was squad land nav and I played no part since it was my first time doing this and there weren't enough jobs for all of us to have, so I didn't learn anything at all. I just walked in the woods for hours. That's kind of how land nav attempt number two went minus the not learning anything. I learned a lot.

It started with us getting two map reading courses by Drill Sergeant Celestine -- he really knew his map stuff. I learned a lot in the first class and by the second, I actually answered one of the questions he asked the class (hollaaaaaa). We had a pop quiz from our Drill Sergeant and our PL. It was about terrain features and general map reading stuff. It was hard though, like we didn't study anything. We weren't given much to study from because the classes we had were more hands on. We were allowed to use our cadet handbooks though, but I ended up putting it away because it sucked with land nav. I couldn't find anything about it. So the first question was to list all the colors that make up a map and what they are used for. I'm pretty sure I made up a color or two. "Reddish-brownish" or "light blueish." Another question was which two ways can you hold your compass? "Left hand" or "right hand." That wasn't the answer.

Our DS had said if we failed we got kicked out of CIET, but I'm pretty sure that he was kidding because I completed CIET and I didn't do too hot on that test. Now I'm thinking that test was probably to see where we were at before they sent us off into the woods alone.

But next came the fun part. We went to the land nav site, plotted our points and got a big safety brief. Plotting was the easiest part. Captain Marchewsky from my Battalion at home gave us a class about it before school had let out, so I kind of knew how to plot my points and make a path for us to go, but Anna really helped to answer my dumb questions when I had some.

After we plotted we had our points checked by the cadre in charge of land nav. Anna and I were "go's" so we were permitted to start our land nav for the daytime.

We had four points, three of which were near each other, so we went to the first three just in case we ran out of time and couldn't reach our fourth. It was fairly easy, but the terrain sucked. I still had a sprained ankle and at this moment, it wasn't wrapped. I didn't have time to see the medic. At first it wasn't hurting but by the end I was ready to cry. What made it better was had it not been for Anna and the Sergeant we saw at one of the water points, I think I would have been a heat causality. It was HOT AF and I remember how dizzy I felt. I also felt like I was going to puke, which explains why Anna kept making me drink water and asking if I was okay. When we got to the water checkpoint, the Sergeant there took one look at me and started asking me questions like "what are we doing?" "How many points do you have?" "How many do you have left?" I answered him correctly, thank God. I didn't want to have to sit out land nav. Land nav is easy, like, if I'm going to be a heat cat it's going to be for something extremely challenging.
We had a couple stalkers on the course, not really. Dan and Jake had the same lane so it turned from a two person buddy team into a four person group of land navers. They made it interesting. Dan was playing country music the whole time which boosted morale in our little squad.

Anna and I were in the front leading everything. I was pace count and she was compass. We walked into SO MANY SPIDERS. Like, legit, I'm not that afraid of spiders anymore. (Thx Knox.) But really, if I had a dollar for every web we touched, Anna and I would have enough to pay a year's worth of our stipends. Thankfully we didn't get bit or see a deadly spider. I would have been done. "Drill Sergeant, I got bit by a spider. I basically want to dieeeee. Send me home thx bye." But again, thankfully that didn't happen.

So we ended up finding all four of our points and we even had time to spare. We got back to the site and handed in our stuff, grabbed our lunches and ate.

When we were done we got to set up our hooch. I was staying with Anna and Michele, it was so much fun. The hooch really worked out well.

Even with all the bug spray we used on our stuff it still didn't get rid of all the critters. That night I slept in my wet weathers and gloves so the bugs wouldn't touch my skin. I looked ridiculous but it worked.

After we were done setting up we had hot chow and had a little more time to relax before night land nav. We couldn't start until it was dark and in mid July the sun sets rather late in Kentucky. So we all hung out, ate our snacks, we bought from the PX on the Fourth and bonded.

Finally when the sun was setting we were called to the bleachers for another safety brief about nighttime land nav and what to be cautious of. We were given another lane and another set of four points to plot and once that was done we were on our way.
These points were easier, the grid was smaller since doing this at night is a lot more dangerous.

We still had our followers, but this time somehow it grew. We had two more from our platoon who decided to join our party. Having the extra people made it a lot more fun, if we were to get lost (which we weren't going to because by now Anna and I are professional land navers) then it wouldn't have been as horrible.

It was a lot scarier though. Not at first -- at first the sun setting is kind of romantic and beautiful but then in the blink of an eye as you're deep in the jungles of Kentucky, it's dark. It's incredibly dark. I've never been real camping before CIET and our family camp we have for the Newhouse side of the family is a house in the woods and there's one streetlight thing that my grandpa made along with the motion lights on the house itself. So I've never been in the dark like that before. We had our red lens but it certainly wasn't enough. There were times that we were using our phones, but we had to be careful because cadre was posted everywhere.

We all almost got caught actually. We were only using our red lens at the time we passed two Staff Sergeants, but they yelled at us and told us you are only to use your red lens when reading a map, not moving. I had no idea about this rule. And by the time they had seen us we were halfway done. Had they not seen us, I still wouldn't have any clue that that isn't a thing. But we painfully obliged and turned off our flashlights until they were out of sight. Once we were sure they couldn't see us we turned them back on. My reasoning was that I already had a sprained ankle so I wasn't going to fall AGAIN and make it worse. Also, you couldn't freaking see and how were we supposed to be safe if we couldn't even see the person next to us?

Our last point was the hardest because it was the closest to the end and our camp site, but there were so many point near it. At first we had said we found it, but then there was another one a couple of feet to the right of that one. Then another and another. We took a shot in the dark, wrote them all down, discussed it and then ended up choosing correctly when we handed them in to get graded.

Once we were done we had to sit in the bleachers to wait for everyone else to finish. Night land nav doesn't sleep until everyone else comes back. I almost fell asleep in the bleachers, my head kept nodding back and forth, but Anna had caught me and told me to watch out. Glad she did because the last thing I wanted was to get smoked at that hour of the morning.

Finally, everyone came back and it was time to get comfy in our makeshift homes. I had a hard time falling asleep that night, I was terrified that I was going to get touched by a spider. I know I did, but thankfully it wasn't directly on my skin.

We woke up the next morning to get moved to our next adventure, the hand grenade course. We learned IMT (individual movement technique) and went down this super sick course.

The day started with movement and doing a really long lane in front of our Drill Sergeant and LT. This week was when we started mid session counseling, I was counseled during this lane. The counseling was okay. LT had told me that I needed to be a little more outgoing so I tried to vocalize my opinions the rest of camp.

But after that lane we went to learning the steps to throwing a live grenade. They had these bricks that built a wall and there were three different stations and positions you had to learn to throw in -- prone, kneeling and standing. After that there was a small grenade course you went through and after you passed that, you went on to the large one. It was really cool, they played music and made you feel all bad ass. That day was a lot of fun for everyone.

The next day started key leader engagements. I LOVED KLE's. I wish we would have had more!! I had so much fun doing those. It felt so REAL. The cadre actors were really good. We had three lanes and went through each of them three times so almost everyone got to experience some form of leadership. Each scenario was different and you never knew what you were going to get. Maybe you got the crazy villagers or the ones who wanted you dead or the ones who totally loved America. That's what made it so great, you were totally unprepared and had to think on your toes. I ended up being in leadership in our last rotation. Our situation was the SAPA forces (the enemies) were stealing medical supplies from the village we were in. We had to meet with the village doctor about what we could do, and one cadet had promised medical supplies from the US. You neverrrrrr promise anything with KLE's. You "will see what you can do." Under promise and over deliver. So I went in and at first the doctor was yelling at me because I didn't bring any supplies, BUT I had brought good news about the village police shooting some of the SAPA they saw stealing so it shouldn't happen anymore. He loved that news. But I was given intel right before I went in to his office about a new disease that was ravaging the area and it was my job to find out what he knew. It was really easy to get him to talk. I just casually talked to him and asked if anything was new. Any new medical stuff going on and he opened right up.
Doing these KLE's made me really interested in going Civil Affairs when I reach Captain.

After we were done we had a super long Road To War brief because the next week we were being "deployed" to Atropia. We were taught the customs and courtesies, what to avoid doing and saying, what the SAPA forces look like and what the friendlies look like. It was all really fun to learn about. Once the brief was over we were marched back to tent city to pack up and get ready for our "deployment."