Thursday, May 13, 2010

Navigation

A few weeks ago we began our first week of navigation's. We started by learning map reading, and the basic terrain features. From there we moved on to actually seeing the features in the field an then we moved onto doing actual navigation's on our own.

In the states soldiers are taught how to read a map, find where you are on the map and to polt their points and move from place to place via the map. In Israel we learn to do the same only with no map. Each soldier learns how to build a route an then how to memorize the route. This metho is actually far superior for one reason, you really learn the terrain and field so the actual navigation its self feels like you have already done it. Because I know I will have no map our path map to guide me I learn the terrain own to her smallest details, the boundaries of my area and the features which will help me identify I have arrived at each of my locations. By the time one reaches the field to perform the navigation you feel like you have already done the who navigation and all that remains is to walk it. This method is also far more operationally effective. Because soldiers are able to operate maps they can be sent with out them to minimize loss of sensitive data should the team fall into enemy hands, and it also means the team is far more flexible as they are capable of self adjusting with out having to consult a map because they are already familiar with the entire area.

Over the course of my training I will have another 12 weeks of navigation. In the coming weeks we will kove to exclusively night navigation's, and to eventually doing all navigation's alone. As the weeks go on we will also see an increase in weight with weights approaching 60 kilos or 130 pounds. My body weight is just below 170 pounds. This means over 75% of my body weight will be going along with me for over 30-40 kilometers. They say our physical limit is far beyond what we believe it to be, and these navigation's seem to me a great way of proving to me this will be true.

The bright sie of all these navigation's is I will essentaily see all of Israel, all of it. Except for Tel Aviv perhaps because there is just not enough open land there to navigate. From the mountains over looking eilat, to the moutains separating Israel from Lebanon I will walk every inch of it. I will familiarize my self with every rock and tree. I will learn here curves and swells the way a husband learns his wife. I will learn to love this land by walking her every inch, and seeing her every beauty. They will be no secret place I will not see, and there will be no inch i will not tread. To me this is the beauty of all our Navigation's. Its the reason why we fight so hard for our land. Its the reason we tell Obama to Fuck off when he tries to tell us what to do in Jerusalem. Its the reason why we have defeated our foes at every advance they have made, and its the reason we will remain here for a long, long , long time to come. We will stay because we are connected, each footstep I will take over theses navigation's will be in the foot prints of my fathers and their, fathers, going back thousands of year. Going back before America came to be, before Christianity's existence, and before Europe was civilized. This is why we will remain and why we can continue to be. This is what Obama and Europe fail to see, we will be here after you are dead and your nation a ruinous waste.

Historians and political scientists often talk of how America nd Europe tend to see the world in very short terms these days while the rest of the world takes a longer view. I believe this to be especially prevalent in Israel. I believe Obama is seriously frustrated with Israel partly because we simply do not take him seriously, at all, period. Israeli's laugh at his serious lack of reality or his lack of all concept of what is really going on in the middle east. The idea those who hate all the West stands for will simply stop hating and killing because Obama extends a hand is so ridiculous only a some one snorting cocaine could buy into it, oh wait, yeah I forgot its Obama. I am often asked by Israeli's questions like "Is Obama crazy or just high?" I believe history will judge Obama very poorly when it comes to his foreign relations. While you may say oh but the world likes us more, well whoop de dah. What makes France happy has nothing to do with what is good for America or her interests. So while I do my next set of navigation's I an take some more hours and think on just how America got to be so Stupid we elected the Dunce of a President we have now. The good news is some one has woken up only 39% of America approves of Obama and dropping. I thank god every day I am in a country run by Bibi, the man served in the best SF unit in Israel and probably the world, He is MIT educated and did not get there or his grades with any help, and he understands the Middle East and the world. Its too bad America does not have a Bibi lying around.