I have always had an innate sense of direction and distance, (Good thing the Artillery never found out, I'd have had a forced change in MOS!) here's a couple examples;
When we were on an FTX, the Repo Depot and the 7ths PSC played our OPFOR. A friend and I, on our own time, found their camp which was laid out like a
laager, in a big circle. It was a short artillery shot away from our camp. I had guessed the direction from their nightly infiltration attempts. (I'd sit with a pair of PVS-5 and watch them come in, then light them up with the MILES) Serge and I went out the next day and found their camp while they were all at the Family Field Day, where the families could come out to our camp, eat, get helicopter rides, tour the camp, etc. We stole their CPT's shelter half, tucked neatly under his bunk, as proof we were there. We went back to the TOC and told the SF CPT I worked for about this, and he thought it would be fun to raid their camp. Unfortunately, he couldn't come with, (OD duty) but there was an E-5 that wanted to come, so we let him. (Big mistake) After we started out, even though Serge and I knew
exactly where the camp was, Sgt. Stupid insisted in trying out his non-existent Night Land Nav skills out. About 600 yards from the actual camp, he insisted the camp was just over the next hill. (It was in fact over the hill after that...) So he got everybody ready for the big frontal assault
, and they (Serge and I hung back and watched the spectacular charge at nothing) ran screaming and shooting at nothing. We kindly informed the Sgt. we would guide the group in from there. He agreed, (thinking we'd mess up worse than him!
) and we set up in a semicircle around their laager. (we didn't have enough people to ring them.) Surprisingly, our Charge of the Light-Headed Brigade hadn't tipped them off that we were there. Even the fumblenutz setting up didn't clue them in. They were acting so Condition White, I assumed it was a trap. (It wasn't, later on we found out they thought the shooting earlier was farther away than it was.) After we got in real close and still no detection, I low crawled into the middle of the laager, stood up, flipped the switch to full, opened up and spun in a circle, and dropped to the ground and low crawled out without anything more but the the 'hiss' sound near misses make on the MILES system. I got back out to the perimeter and joined in on picking off the OPFOR troops, until their 1SG called cease fire. Serge had dashed into their TOC, and taken the CPT captive. We were all engaging in a lively AAR exchange, with the 1SG insisting we did not get into his perimeter, in his best Drill Sgt. voice. I respectfully disagrees, telling him what I'd done to initiate action. Just then, Serge come out, rifle barrel at the CPT's back. (The 1SG had his back to this) I said, " Hey CPT K, tell the first sergeant that we got inside his perimeter!" The CPT confirmed it, and Top blew up at his people, almost all Ranger/Airborne patch holders.
Some of the best fun I had when I was in.
and an actual hunting one:
Dad and I were duck hunting on Lake Lizzie, in NW MN. The lake is divided into a blue water lake, and a brown water slough by a narrow pass on the SE corner of the open part of the lake.
There was heavy fog when we started out, and and I was the appointed motor for the day. (Oars) He kept running us in circles (dad appointed himself navigator) and I told him that, to no avail, and him getting madder by the moment. I told him were were 500 yards straight out from our campsite. When the fog started lifting right about the time we should have been finishing setting decoys, that's exactly where we were, and to my surprise, my Dad admitted he was wrong. I told him "Don't ever doubt my abilities again". He hasn't since.
I breezed through Land Nav training in ROTC, Basic and ARTEPs, without actually having to use the map, except as an initial reference.
I've tracked deer for miles through areas I'd never been before and never been lost. I wish I could say it's a skill, but it's just there. Nice thing to have.