Tactical Wisdom: Why Should I Learn to Navigate?

Originally appears on Tactical Wisdom and written by Joe Dolio.

Many people’s idea of preparedness involves buying something to address an issue and thinking that’s good enough. For example, buying huge stocks of food. Well, once you crack the seal on your stored food, you’re on the countdown to starvation. Radios are the same. Thousands of people bought a Baofeng UV-5R and then tossed it in the supply room, never having programmed it nor figured out how it works. That’s going to cause a porblem later. For the record, if you need yours programmed, click the Consulting Services tab, I can do that for you.

Another area where folks have a huge blind spot is land navigation. Most folks figure, “well, I spent $575 on great GPS unit, and another $100 on a compass, so I”m good”. Well, not so fast. Let’s talk about why we need a bit of training.

Before you skip this article, read this Tactical Wisdom from the Ultimate Tactical Handbook:

The way of fools seems right to them,
but the wise listen to advice.

Proverbs 12:15

First, let’s talk about the reliability of GPS. Right now, with the cell phone system working and power at all the ground stations, GPS is highly reliable. That’s a great thing. However, even now in perfect operating conditions, your GPS can lose signal in dense forest, a high walled canyon or valley, or in particularly bad weather. That’s under ideal conditions. Already, in the current world, it’s only reliable as a convenience, not as a “bet your life on it” tool.

At the first sign of international conflict, every one of the 4 entities that run the GPS networks will remove public access to prevent their enemies from using it. The US GPS system, GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (EU), and Beidou (China) are all at their heart military applications and all it takes is the flip of a switch and you’re denied access. We saw this as recently as the 2020 Virginia Lobby Day Protest, when the US Navy decided to “test” their GPS denial system and everyone in Richmond lost their GPS signal.

This is also ongoing in Europe near the Ukrainian conflcit zone and now north into Poland during a large NATO exercise.

The problem is that we’ve become so reliant on it that folks have forgotten how to navigate on their own. Ask some people how to get across town to an unfamiliar address and they are unable to do it, despite most towns being laid out in a very simple grid system.

If you are using your phone GPS, I highly recommend downloading “offline” maps of your local area so that you aren’t reliant on a cell signal for mapping. Also, I use a paid European app called Sygic, which allows me to download maps of entire states to my devices for offline use. I don’t recommend relying on phone GPS, however.

Ok, you might think, but it’s cool because I have this $100 compass. Neat. Compasses point us towards north, right? Just follow the needle, and you’re good to go, right? Not exactly. The compass actually points to Ellesmere Island, Canada, a bit south and west of the north pole. If you follow just the compass needle, you will be off course, and the farther you travel, the farther off course you will get.

You need to learn land navigation, which is learning how to make your compass bearing match the true bearing (by understanding magnetic declination and how to do the very basic math), how to orient your map, and then how to plot a course using compass bearings to guide you and land features to make sure you remain on course.

While there is a very good breakdown of how to do this in TW-02 Fieldcraft, most of an entire day is dedicated to it in my Fieldcraft class. We will be going out and learning about maps and compasses, and then running day and night courses using them. We’ll also learn to navigate without the compass using just a map. It will be fun. Check the courses page for dates and locations.

Local Orienteering clubs are another good way to learn. Geocaching is a sport using compass bearings or coordinates to find hidden treasure/messages to learn to navigate. A few great books are highlighted in the pcitures and they are also links to these books that can help.

“But, Joe, we’re bugging in and won’t need it”. Ok, what if you are at work, or on vacation when the world collapses? Having at least basic skill and a compass/map can get you home. You might even be forced to leave that great bug in location, and you’ll need at least a little skill.

Invest some time and effort into learning to use your navigational tools. Let’s try to wean ourselves off of reliance on gadgets and electronics that require the benevolence of others to work. Self-Sufficiency means have the skills to go with the gear, so that I can remain free.

It’s crazy that some in the preparedness field will spend thousands attending cool-guy carbine classes learning skills that they will probably never use (I’m looking at you CQB guys) but will not spend a couple hundred learning how to use a map & compass. You’re about 10 times more likely to get lost than to get into a gunfight. Once your learn resection, an easy land navigation skill, you will ALWAYS be able to pinpoint your location to within 30 feet as long as you have a map and compass. Come and train.