Shoemaker High School Junior ROTC cadets traversed rocky paths and pushed through dense brush during a favorite outing Thursday to test their land navigation skills.
Along with 108 Greywolf Battalion cadets, 20 JROTC students from Copperas Cove High School spent the chilly morning on a Fort Hood navigation course off Ivy Mountain Road near the Killeen Regional Airport.
In groups of six, students used maps and protractors to find their way to up to six geographic navigation points set up across the rolling pastureland south of Killeen.
Shoemaker senior Stephen Nelson led the first group to finish the course. His team found all six points assigned to them.
The groups formed arbitrarily upon arrival to the course. They studied their maps and made a plan, then spent about two hours combing through the trails before returning to the start point to report their results and eat lunch together.
“We just used the roads to get a general location,” he said, explaining a methodical process of moving to each location.
While it was Nelson’s first time on the course, he said he did have experience orienteering in Boy Scouts. “We did something similar at a camp site, and it definitely helped,” he said.
“It’s a good skill to have. You never know if your GPS is going to die or you might just get lost. It’s good to at least know the fundamentals.” He praised his team members for working well together.
Students learned in their JROTC class to read a map and to use a protractor to navigate. Still, using the skill in the field is a different experience.
Student battalion leaders served as “safeties,” following their peers on the course and staying in touch through two-way radio to make sure everyone stayed within boundaries and remained hydrated.
Eliana Skeete, a Shoemaker senior and battalion commander, said the day of land navigation is a good way to test a new skill and to bond as a group.
“This is an event we do every year. We do a lesson in class and learn to orient with a map. Today, they are using what they learned to find points,” she said.
“They gain team bonding and learn to read a map. There’s a lot of people who don’t know how to read a map. That’s important for survival.”
“We are one of the only schools in the area that does this. It’s a great privilege to come here on a school day. It’s a good way for us to learn together.”
Shoemaker senior Yanimarie Nieves, the battalion executive officer agreed the activity was more than testing a skill.
“We’ve given them points that are scattered around here. They will find the starting point and then plan their paths to the next points, teaching them to read the map properly,” she said.
“We get a viable life skill. You can’t always rely on your phone and GPS. It’s a safety skill to plot yourself and know where you are and move to safety,” she said.
“It builds a lot of team bonding. Now, with Copperas Cove here we get to meet more people and bond over our love for this program.”
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/killeenisd/albums/72177720332491327