MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. --
Through razor-sharp
thorns and bone-chilling water, Marine Wing Support Squadron 274’s Engineer
Company, Heavy Equipment Platoon honed their skills on a course designed to
test their land navigation abilities at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point,
Jan. 13, 2016.
During the 19-point
course, 20 Marines headed to the field to re-experience the basic land
navigation process.
Support squadrons
maintain a scalable, flexible, and rapidly deployable posture that enables
Marine aviation to conduct expeditionary operations. This training keeps
Marines knowledgeable in case an emergency situation was to arise during an
operation.
“Our land navigation
course is extremely beneficial, because it helps us refresh our knowledge on
the basics of what we learned in boot camp,” said Sgt. Fredrick S. Granger, an
engineer equipment operator with MWSS-274. “You never know when you will get
lost on a training exercise or even a deployment.”
While deployed, support
squadron Marines regularly conduct combat logistics patrols through contested
areas. At any point on those convoys, they may need to rely on the navigation skills
they are using during this training.
“Before this course, I didn’t remember much
about land navigation,” said Lance Cpl. Brandon N. Ortiz, an engineer equipment
operator with MWSS-274. “I learned a lot more about land navigation and the
process of finding your point.”
After a safety
brief, Marines chose their teams and began at the starting point. Shooting an
azimuth to their first set of coordinates, the Marines stepped off to locate
their points. For some of the Marines, this is the first time since Marine
Combat Training that they have used land navigation.
Ortiz stated that land
navigation training can be beneficial for the Marines in the future during training
operations or deployments and it helps his platoon have a better understanding
of basic navigation skills.
“This is the first
time as a platoon we have held land navigation training,” said Granger. “I hope
this course was a good refresher for the Marines, and they took a lot from the
training.”