Land Navigation and Week 3 of DCC

*In this post, I discuss the third week of the Army’s Direct Commission Course. This week focused on land navigation. *

For more detailed information, please see my book The DCC Survival Guide: Succeeding at the Army’s Direct Commission Course and its companion work The JAG School Survival Guide: Succeeding at the Army’s Judge Advocate Officer Basic Course.  

Photo by U.S. Army RDECOM is licensed under CC 2.0. This content uses referral links.

Yesterday marked the end of the third week of the Army’s Direct Commission Course. I am now halfway finished with this course. In three weeks, I will head off to Charlottesville, Virginia to begin the ten-and-a-half week Judge Advocate Officer Basic Course.

This week was highly unusual on account of the weather. We were, however, able to complete land navigation and begin basic rifle marksmanship.

Land Navigation

As I described in my previous post, we began land navigation last Friday with a group practice round. On Monday of this week, we continued practicing land navigation. This time, the cadre divided us into groups of two. We also went to the land navigation course where we would have our test. This course was different than last week’s.

So, on Monday morning, the cadre gave us three hours to find four points. We started early in the morning while it was still dark. We had to walk a few kilometers down the road to get to our first point of attack. (Everything is on the metric system.) So, there was enough light to see once we began trekking through the woods.

(You can have flashlights to help you see, but you can only use red light. Red light is quite dim. You cannot use the traditional white light during land navigation.)

Finding Points in Land Navigation

When we finished, we had an MRE for lunch. Then in the afternoon, the cadre gave us four additional points to find in three hours. Below is a picture of a point my partner and I found.

Some of the points were relatively easy to find. Thick brush surrounded others, however, making them very difficult to see until we were right on them.

Overall, this was a lot of fun. Unlike our first land navigation course, however, the roads were sand. Walking ten to fifteen miles through sand can be quite taxing. I found it much easier to walk through the woods than on the sandy roads.

The schedule called for a practice test on Tuesday. The cadre intended to give us five points to find on our own in four hours. (We had to find three out of five to pass the test, and we had to do it alone.)

Because of incoming winter weather, however, the cadre canceled the practice round. They moved the test up to Tuesday from Wednesday.

So, we had our test on Tuesday morning. Once again, we started in the dark.

I passed, so I am now done with land navigation. A handful of people were not able to get their points in time. They will, however, have two other opportunities to pass before the end of the class.

The Weather

One of the purposes of this blog is to provide information to those who will take the class in the future. This week, however, was very unusual. I, therefore, don’t think I’ll be able to provide much guidance.

As I mentioned above, the original schedule had us conducting additional land navigation practice on Tuesday. We were then to test on Wednesday. (We were also scheduled to do water survival training on Tuesday afternoon.)

Unfortunately, winter weather moved in. The cadre, therefore, moved our test to Tuesday morning. (If you haven’t been watching the news, winter weather hit Georgia and essentially shut down the state.)

The snow hit Atlanta particularly hard. The media gave pictures of traffic gridlock in Atlanta a lot of airtime. It was only about two inches of snow. Since snow is so rare here, however, the state wasn’t equipped to deal with it.

After the land navigation test, we were supposed to then go to the pool for water survival training.  The cadre canceled this too. The post commander shut the base down early. So, the cadre released us early on Tuesday. (This essentially meant we could just go back to our rooms.)

Then Wednesday, the post commander shut down the entire base. So, we didn’t have any training.

While it was nice to have the day off, everything on base was closed. So, there really wasn’t anything to do. They issued us MREs to eat since the DFAC and all the restaurants on post closed as well. (DFAC is military for cafeteria.)

People made the best of it, though. You probably can’t tell from the picture, but even the officer candidates enjoyed themselves. They played in the snow and organized a snowball fight.

Late Start

On Thursday, training did not begin until noon. We were initially supposed to do some rappelling on Thursday, but that too was canceled. That would have been canceled regardless, however. Construction in the area prevented the use of the tower.

So, on Thursday, I finished the last of my inprocessing. (Inprocessing takes forever.) Then we had some MRT—master resiliency training.

And that was the day.

Watch on YouTube

*I like this video. JAGs should remember that we’re not Rangers. We’re the guys pointing toward the battlefield. *

Basic Rifle Marksmanship

We got back on track on Friday when we began basic rifle marksmanship. The cadre issued our M-16s. (DCC is one of the few pockets of the Army that still uses the M-16. Everyone else has moved to the M-4.)

We spent the morning in the classroom learning about our weapon and what we will be doing. The cadre spent the afternoon teaching us the positions from which we will have to fire to qualify.

When we use our weapons, we have to wear body armor. So, we spent the day walking around in full combat garb. This makes handling the weapon a bit awkward.

If I could do it over again, I would have spent time walking around in weighted vests and with heavy packs to get ready for the course. It takes some getting used to.

At the end of the day, we returned our weapon systems. (The cadre insists we call it a weapon system and not a gun. The combination of the optic scope and the M-16 makes it a weapon system.) The cadre then released us for the weekend.

Next Week

We spend the entire next week on basic rifle marksmanship. By the end of the next week, I believe we will have the opportunity to qualify. We also do a diagnostic Army Physical Fitness Test on Monday morning, and we have a four-mile ruck march sometime in the middle of the week.

Again, I will continue to post updates about my experience. Please continue to check back if you are interested.

I provide a more expansive account of my experience in my book The DCC Survival Guide: Succeeding at the Army’s Direct Commission Course and its companion work The JAG School Survival Guide: Succeeding at the Army’s Judge Advocate Officer Basic Course.

The views and opinions expressed in this post are the author’s own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Army, the National Guard Bureau, the Arkansas National Guard, the Department of Defense, or the United States Government.

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See Also:

Week 2 of the Army’s Direct Commission Course (DCC)

Week 4 of the Army’s Direct Commission Course (DCC)