[x SF med]

COL Jack,
Sir, I can empathisize with that horror - in PLDC (why they made us go through it after we had already gotten BNOC in the Q, I'll never understand, we walked in with NCOPD with a 2 device...) each of the SF guys got a weak partner - mine just happened to be an overweight female clerk that had never been to the field before, ever. Ft Dix is not a difficult Land Nav course, but this SGT was worthless, I tried my damnedest to teach her what I could, and coached her till she could at least shoot an azimuth. The TAC pulled me aside prior to the testing phase, and told me I had to get my "team" through the course first both day and night. Day phase test - fairly easy, I let her run a few readings, forced her to move pretty quickly and we whizzed through the course, all 3 points and 3 km pretty quickly - first in, all points correct - she got to sleep for a while until the other teams showed up (funny, all of the teams with SF guys were in the first returns...). Night course - she freaked "I'm not going into the wooods (scrub pine and light undergrowth) at night, they said we can't use flashlights, and there are animals..." the TAC overheard and told me - the same rules applied - all points, first back - do what you have to do to make it happen. My 30 ft A7A came out of the Ruck, and I showed it to her and said - you can run the course like an NCO, or I'm strapping this around you, tying it to myself and dragging you through the brush at a dead run... Your choice." same thing as the Day phase, she got some practical experience, a little confidence, and we smoked the course. I found out later that night that the TAC had bet all of the other TACs that she could finish the course in the top 3 teams, and that they said "not even with an SF guy will she even finish the course". He won 8 cases of beer, I got a thank you. She actually learned a little Land Nav that she'd never use at her comfy desk at Ft. Belvoir.