Have Soldiers Forgotten How to Use a Map and Compass?

Half of the soldiers in the pilot program for land navigation have failed the training seven months after it was reintroduced.

The Army's junior leaders attend BLC to learn how to become sergeants. After four years, land navigation was brought back. The school is supposed to teach young noncommissioned officers about the service's policies.

Service leaders are trying to get non-combat arms troops up to snuff on basic soldiering skills by adding fieldcraft and combat tactics. Land navigation requires soldiers to use a map with a protractor and a compass to find places in the woods. In combat with an approximation on just about every phone, no gps is allowed.

The F-35 crashes on a runway.

According to Daniel Hendrex, the top enlisted leader for the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, half of the soldiers who have been through the training have failed.

It's not required to graduate if you don't pass. The high failure rate is troubling as the service gears up for conventional warfare, with future conflicts expected to see the wide use of cyber weapons, which can knock out the gps tools soldiers relied on during the Global War on Terror.

The senior fellow and program director for military, veterans and society at the Center for a New American Security said that land navigation is a critical military skill. The soldiers need to know how to navigate. It is becoming an issue for the military. This generation was raised with gps.

The troops in BLC serve as a sample of the general rank and file, but shallow land navigation skills haven't affected the service's elite schools. Only a small percentage of students fail navigation tests in Ranger School.

Land navigation skills are more than just going from point A to point B.

There are schools with the land navigation pilot program.

Hendrex said that land navigation skills will soon be required of all active duty BLC schools. Failing the course won't affect whether a soldier graduates, but will be taken into account for the commandant's list, which sorts the top performing students and can lead to awards. Land navigation is being integrated into National Guard and reserve schools.

Army planners hoped land navigation's return to a must-pass school would encourage units to spend more time training on that task, but non-combat arms units can't find the time to add that training on top of their normal duties. Soldiers from combat arms units are included in the failure rate.

Hendrex said that BLC would have to grow to accommodate land navigation and other training within the next few years. The feedback from the service's National Training Centers has led to the addition of more field time to BLC.

The feedback shows that soldiers are struggling with navigation, which can lead to them being lost in a real combat zone.

Hendrex said that if you're light infantry, you'll stick to roads more. The more you stick to the roads, the more likely you are to put your unit and organization at risk.

During training and day-to-day life, modern soldiers rely on the use of gps, which makes maps seem unwieldy.

It isn't easy to understand. One Special Forces noncommissioned officer who helps prepare soldiers for the Army's Special Forces selection course told Military.com on the condition of anonymity that understanding how numbers correlate with a random spot in the woods doesn't make sense to a lot of the new soldiers

The Army has made combat skills training a higher priority for soldiers who aren't in combat roles, as well as for soldiers who are not in combat roles. The Expert Soldier Badge is the same test that infantrymen have been taking for years to measure their combat skills.

Next year, earning expert badges will be more important for promotions.

Steve Beynon can be reached at Military.com. You can follow him on the social networking site.

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