Cadets in the Eastern Washington University (EWU) Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program receive extensive training on basic land navigation. Our land navigation training for the first year Cadets began last month during the field training phase of our Jump Start program. This week’s leadership laboratory built on the skills learned during Jump Start and follow on classroom training. During the lab Cadets validated their pace counts, practiced plotting grid points on a map, shooting azimuths with a compass, and finding points on a land navigation course.
The lab was held in the wide open Palouse landscape east of the EWU campus. The rolling Palouse terrain makes for perfect conditions to teach basic land navigation to Cadets.
Cadets find land navigation points in the Palouse plains East of the EWU campus.
The Junior and Senior Cadets during the lab taught basic land navigation skills to the freshman and sophomores. Future land navigation training will occur in the wooded terrain to the east of Cheney that will add a further level of difficulty for the junior Cadets to better master their land navigation skills. Learning land navigation is an important skill for Cadets to learn because most of the Cadets will attend Advanced Camp during the summer between their Junior and Senior years in college. At Advanced Camp being able to successfully pass the land navigation course at Ft. Knox, Kentucky is required for all Cadets. The land navigation training offered in the EWU ROTC program ensures that Cadets are ready to succeed at Advanced Camp.
Below are pictures from the basic land navigation lab:
Cadet Isabelle Erickson (center) listens to the basic land navigation instruction.
EWU ROTC Cadets plot grid points on their maps.
Cadets Everett Kuhnel (left) and Austin Bristow (right) use their compass to navigate towards their next point.
Cadet James Tallakson (left) provides instruction on how to properly use a compass to Cadet Isabell Erickson (right).
Cadet Maddie Woodland (right) walks through the Palouse wheat fields to find her next land navigation point.
Cadet Nicholas Null traverses the land navigation course.
