Land nav, iron sights and more discipline: Big changes are coming to Army basic training

Glad that they are bringing back land nav and instilling more discipline.

Interesting read. I know that when I compare what I experienced in BCT vs what my son-in-law experienced a couple of years ago they are as different as night and day. I am a firm believer in strict discipline in BCT. You need to know how to carry yourself as a soldier and how to respect those NCOs and officers appointed over you. Iron sights....absolutely. Optics will fail. Glad to see that the Army is re-evaluating this important training.

I truly hope that it actually goes through and works this time. Not sure how to feel about land nav and grenades though. Every soldier should be competent in those tasks, and they are in the SMCT Level 1. Land nav bothers me more because its out-and-out contradictory. They dismiss land nav because we have GPS, BFT etc, but then they turn around and say that ironsight qualification is essential (they aren't wrong, but that's not the point) -- why?-- because technology will inevitably fail eventually. So don't you think we should keep focus on manual navigation and not allow it to fade into obscurity simply on the premise that we have technology to replace it?

I don't know. I'm kinda conflicted on this whole thing. Good share and an interesting read, Sir!