Land Nav

The day was dusty, hot and long. I was in Kuwait and we were doing some navigation exercises out in the desert with the temp at 125 degrees. The only breeze you received was hair dryer blowing sand into your mouth. Never the less the mission had to move on. I was stationed with 3rd and 15th Mechanized Infantry division and attached to a tank battalion. We were always on the move and it was very important to know how to get around in the desert where there is very little differences in the terrain. We were giving the task to move from one coordinate to another out in the middle of nowhere. In order to accomplish this, the military gives you a terrain map and a PLUGGER or in civilian terms a “GPS”. We were in a race against other tanks to reach the point first. We were at different starting locations but within the same time and distance so that it would be fair. We had to plug in the existing coordinates and then plug in the destination and then try to navigate our way through the sand dunes that are constantly changing with the wind. During my NCO Academy training we learned advanced Mapping using a compass, and a map. Most people struggle in this but because I was a visual person I did really well in this and carried this into my advantage. It was a good thing because in Kuwait as I was putting the coordinates into the PLUGGER, it died. The batteries gave out. My soldiers began to panic thinking we would never win the races. I smiled and told them to give me the map , protractor, and compass. As a tank commander I had to be calm and take control. I knew that this was probably a plan and a trick from the Company commanders. So I found out where we were and according to longitude and latitude and the surrounding rock formations. We triangulated our position and wrote down our destination. I began to shoot an azimuth then we headed out. With ease we arrived about two minutes before the other tanks and without a GPS. The Commanders were surprised and when they found out we did it without the GPS the evened the playing field. They took everyone’s GPS units and gave them a map and compass. As the day went on the tasks were longer and it began to get darker. This made it even more difficult, especially while eating sand. We continued to win every race and each time the time gap was larger and larger. I trusted the training I had. I spent extra time making sure that I knew about map reading and I never wanted to be stranded. If the batteries go out on the GPS where are you then? I believe our Christian faith is the same. If we can trust Gods word and what we learned from it to get through life we should be on track. We cant just go on our own instincts all the time or do what we feel is the right thing to do. We have to know what Jesus would do. The more time we spend with God the more he reveals himself and will navigate us through life. If we are in His will we wont have to rely on the world to get us on the right path. I often think that if we had to have a GPS, it should be a God Positioning System, “Prayer and lots of scripture with convictions by the Holy Spirit”.

Proverbs 3:1-6