Lance Cpl. Tyler J. Hlavac Sgt. Christian Luna begins marking grid locations onto his map during the Marine Corps Base Sergeant’s Course land navigation training at the Central Training Area May 2.

‘‘Land navigation serves as an essential skill for Marines operating in the field. Yet many of the sergeants have not completed any land navigation training since their initial Marine Combat Training,” said Gunnery Sgt. Johnathan Radel, the staff noncommissioned officer in charge of the course. ‘‘Marines often lose many of their basic field skills over time through lack of practice. Every sergeant is a leader of Marines, and when junior Marines are lost in the field, the first thing they do is look to the sergeant to guide them back to safety.”

Marines relied on their training and instincts as they navigated through the thick jungle terrain with a map and compass. The main portion of the training involved the Marines locating eight grid coordinates, which marked the location of different red boxes in the jungle. They had to find six of the eight boxes to complete the course.

‘‘Marines today often focus more on using technology, such as a GPS, to do the work for them,” said Radel. ‘‘GPS is a great tool, but it breaks down and runs out of batteries. We try to steer Marines away from technology and make them realize that the Marine Corps has already given them all the skills they will need for success.”

Land navigation has many uses in combat. If a Marine knows how to read a map and mark locations, they can guide friendly units to the location of enemy prisoners of war or improvised explosive devices. Marines can also call in coordinates to help guide artillery, which makes response time much faster, said Radel.

While navigating through the jungle, the Marines also learned how terrain can affect the mission.

‘‘The terrain is really challenging here. The vegetation and hills made maneuvering and finding the red boxes, signaling our grid points, very challenging,” said Sgt. Matthew Fries, an electrician with Marine All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 242. ‘‘Often a box would be right in front of you, and you would have to search extensively just to find it.”

However, terrain can also create advantages.

‘‘Terrain can assist you if you know how to recognize it on a map,” said Radel. ‘‘If a Marine spots certain terrain features on a map, he can use those features to plan an ambush, or he can navigate around the features and save his Marines a lot of time and energy.”

Fries said the land navigation course was great for the Marines involved because the majority of them found their skills had gotten rusty.

‘‘I have not conducted any sort of land navigation since MCT, and for some of the Marines here, it has been four or five years since they have done it,” Fries said. ‘‘This is one of many field training events we will be conducting during Sergeants Course, and it was great being able to finally get out into a real field environment and put our skills to the test.”