I actually loved land navigation at OCS. I got perfect scores on all of them. At TBS, nahhhhhh. I was the lost 2ndLt.
You will have both day and night land navigation. This website does a good job explaining night land navigation, but always consult your knowledge book!
That website describes the course, which is used for both day and night land navigation. For day, its simple, you rotate your body until the degree (azimuth) is what you're assigned, and you walk forward. Always make sure to have two points in the distance that you aim for.
At night, since you can't have your light out, you "preset" your compass so that the glowing stripe on the "bezel ring" is the direction you need to go.
The three most important parts of the compass are:
The Stationary Black Line- When holding the compass in front of you, this should be directly in front of you. It is fixed to the compass.
The Bezel Ring- You can rotate this ring around the compass. It makes a clicking sound. It will take 120 clicks to turn it all the way around. There is a dashed line, the "luminous line," that glows on this ring that obviously moves depending on how much you turn the bezel ring.
The North Seeking Arrow- You already know what this is. It's the thing that moves when you turn your body or the compass because it always faces north.
Anyway, these three things together are especially important at night, because the luminous line and bezel ring help you navigate without a light.
At OCS, you can get under your poncho, turn on your red light, and preset your compass so that the luminous line is over the azimuth you need. However, there is a way you can do this without your poncho, by using the CLICK METHOD.
At OCS,I became the "Land Navigation" Candidate by accident. In class we were learning land navigation and I remember being so confused at the click method, so one day when we had 20 minutes to study knowledge (out in the cold), I decided to freaking MEMORIZE the click method. The day of land navigation, people were asking others how to do it and when I started to explain it, someone told me to go in front of the whole company and explain. Yep. My nightmare became reality. At least I was wearing cami paint...
Anyway, to do the click method, you figure out if you have a big or small azimuth. A big azimuth is bigger than 180 degrees, and a little azimuth is 180 degrees or less.
Let's start with a little azimuth, lets say... 120 degrees.
Divide 120 by THREE. 120/3= 40.
Line up the luminous line with the black line, then turn the bezel ring 40 clicks COUNTER CLOCKWISE.
Next, rotate your body until the luminous line matches up with the North seeking arrow.
Walk in the direction of the stationary black line. (You may have to rotate your body but keep the compass in the same position)
DO NOT ACCIDENTALLY FOLLOW THE NORTH SEEKING ARROW. The North seeking arrow and the luminous line should remain joined together. They will most likely be pointing to one side or another, unless you have 180 degrees, which means it'll be closest to you, or 360 degrees, which will line up all together.
Now let's do a big azimuth, let's say...351 degrees.
Go 360 (like in 360 degrees) MINUS THE AZIMUTH. So, 360-351=9.
Divide that number by 3. 9/3=3.
Line up the luminous line with the black line, then turn the bezel ring 3 clicks CLOCKWISE.
Next, rotate your body until the luminous line matches up with the North seeking arrow.
Walk in the direction of the stationary black line.
Once again, DO NOT ACCIDENTALLY FOLLOW THE NORTH SEEKING ARROW. The North seeking arrow and the luminous line should remain joined together. They will most likely be pointing to one side or another, unless you have 180 degrees, which means it'll be closest to you, or 360 degrees, which will line up all together.
In this case, 9 degrees, your luminous line and north seeking arrow (joined of course) will be pretty close to where you are walking.
How can you remember which way to turn the bezel ring? I like pneumonic devices. I just remember "Big Ben Clock," like that clock in England. It's big, and it goes clockwise. Duh. So for big azimuths, you turn clockwise.
Now wait a second. None of those division problems had remainders! What do you do if you have a remainder? Well, it's DOWN RIGHT simple. I'll explain.
You need to go 46 degrees.
46/3= 15 remainder 1, or 15 1/3.
If the remainder is 1, round DOWN. So that would be 15.
Like before, turn 5 clicks COUNTER CLOCKWISE (because it's little)
Line up the compass how you did before.
When you walk to your objective, you will actually be off a little. When you finish the distance you need to go, your objective will be on your RIGHT.
Now let's do one with remainder 2, let's say, 346.
360-346=14
14/3 =4 remainder 2, or 4 2/3
If the remainder is 2, round UP. So that would be 15.
In this case, turn 5 clicks CLOCKWISE (because it's big)
Line up the compass how you did before.
When you walk to your objective, you will actually be off a little. When you finish the distance you need to go, your objective will be on your LEFT.
How can you remember this? Remember how I said I like pneumonic devices? Well there's one for here as well. If you have to round down, your objective will be on the right because it's DOWN RIGHT simple :)
Yep, I came up with that too. I said both of these pneumonic devices in cami paint, in front of the company.
Other things to know for land navigation:
DON'T LOSE YOUR CARD! Please! If you lose your little score card, you will fail unless you find it.
A prior service infantry Marine told me that he would write his azimuths and pace counts on his glow strap so he could see them in the dark.
Make sure to secure your compass when you approach an instructor. You will lose points if it's unsecured.
Turning the bezel ring clockwise versus counter clockwise has nothing to do with the object being on the right or left if there is a remainder.
Only read this part if you have the above completely Gucci.
You know how there are 120 clicks to the bezel ring? That's 60 each way. Well...If you have to turn 59 clicks clockwise, you can just put the bezel ring 60 clicks (which is closest to your body so you don't have to count), and then turn one click back.