GPS at Ranger School

[missmouse97]

Ranger Fishboy,

Thanks for the advice. I think I will deprive him of the GPS for RS, but I am still planning on getting one for him for when he deploys so I will go with the one you suggested. Merry Christmas everyone!

[missmouse97]

Ranger Zonk,

True true! I will still be getting it for him for Christmas, but geared more for deployment. If he decides to take it to RS as well, more power to him! I don't really care what he takes there, as long as he gets through the suck!

[boscounderfoot]

Well, there goes the neighborhood. A GPS? Really? Come on! So I guess the APL gets to add AA batteries for the GPS's to his supply request? Or no, better yet..........Compass man (GPS boy) halts the patrol because his batteries are dead. Ah, or they don't need night vision because they walk by the green screen glow. During planning phase, route selection is now being replaced by Mapquesting the directions to the objective and handing out copies to each Ranger student. WTF is going on?
How many of you remember the dreaded question posed to you by the RI's? "Ranger, show me where we're at on your map." Miss it by 200m and.........well, you remember. Ahh the good old days!

[missmouse97]

Ranger Kilted Heathen,

Sorry for bringing up an old post, but I wanted to thank you for the advice on the Garmin Etrex for Ranger School. Due to family issues my fiance will not be going until July, but he lent the GPS to another soldier in his unit that just went and he reported back that most of them had GPS and it helped him very much. I rarely post here, but I read a lot and am constantly in awe of your dedication.

Thanks!
Tarah

[K.Ingraham]

Tarah,
Thanks for the update. The extra time to prepare should serve him well.

[Oto-Man]

Well, there goes the neighborhood. A GPS? Really? Come on! So I guess the APL gets to add AA batteries for the GPS's to his supply request? Or no, better yet..........Compass man (GPS boy) halts the patrol because his batteries are dead. Ah, or they don't need night vision because they walk by the green screen glow. During planning phase, route selection is now being replaced by Mapquesting the directions to the objective and handing out copies to each Ranger student. WTF is going on?
How many of you remember the dreaded question posed to you by the RI's? "Ranger, show me where we're at on your map." Miss it by 200m and.........well, you remember. Ahh the good old days!

Not with your finger asshole....here...use this...(hands you a pine needle or thin twig) Where the F are you?!?

Arty off...and trying to get a group of drones headed tward the OBJ...fun times stud...fun times...

[hobbit]

A GPS with a dinky screen like the eTrex is a fine land navigation tool if you know how to use it. I own two. I always carried one backpacking and especially when prospecting. It's nice to be able to return to a wilderness locale you want to investigate further. As an emergency device, it's invaluable. If you're in trouble, you can call in your exact location to rescue personnel or to a TOC or whatever. As a navigation tool it's worthless unless you do some preliminary learning and trip planning. That means knowing where you're going to go prior to your hike, backpacking trip, Ranger mission, whatever. What good does it do to take a GPS locale reading if you're lost and have no reference point for the reading that the device is giving you?

Great. So you know your exact location in latitude and longitude but you're clueless as how that translates to a known point on the terrain around you. In short, you're just as lost as you were before you took the reading. As an effective navigation tool, you have to sit down with your maps before you leave, plot your course, and then enter waypoints into the eTrex. Waypoints are known longitude/latitude locations along your intended course. They can be anything: a bend in a stream, a high hill, an abandoned shack, etc. That little GPS device will record up to 500 waypoints. Now you have latitude/longitude reference points along your course, entered into the eTrex memory, that'll give you something you can reference your daily readings to. Now you have a REAL navigation tool. Use the eTrex during breaks. The longer you let it acquire satellites, the more accurate your readings will be. In my experience, a ten-minute acquisition time will give you accuracy down to about 12 feet (not always though).

So the Ranger School wants to give its students GPS devices? Fantastic. Some forward-thinking instructor there has decided it’s time to join the 21st century. Just because we’re grunts doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hop on the rocket ship every now and then.

[Jim]

Not with your finger asshole....here...use this...(hands you a pine needle or thin twig) Where the F are you?!?

So a student now takes a pine needle and point it to the readout on the GPS when asked "Show me where you at PL?"

Priceless! Just priceless!!!

[K.Ingraham]

I always pointed to the ground beneath my feet and said "I'm right here Sergeant".