Walking in the Dark

I ran into a tree

I never saw it coming. And I am not saying that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. My eyes were wide and open, looking strait into the blacked out forest. The moonless night along with the well covered canopy of the Quantico highlands provided only 2 percent visibility. That was enough light to see only a mere two inches.

Night land navigation is apart of our curriculum as officers. Being able to find your way during the night is important, as most operations for the marines are done during the cover of darkness. Navigating with a compass to find these little small boxes during the day was hard enough. Doing it without being able to see made it even more difficult than before.

I looked down at my compass near my chest. The glowing dials swung back and forth until they settled again on my correct azmuth. I looked up and strait to try and pick out a tree in front of me to walk to, but all I could see was black. I took a few steps of faith forward, hoping that I would not run into anything.

I heard occasional snaps of branches and rustle of leaves in the near distance. Other officers made their way through the brush, one step at a time. After taking a few steps and running into another prickle bush, I stopped and took a sip of water. Looking to my left, I saw small glows from the compasses of others.

A hard snap and a loud rustle of leaves sounded, followed by a string of curse words.

Someone must have found that ditch again , I thought to myself. Every 5 minutes or so, I would hear another Lt. fall and curse. It would have been quiet humorous if I wasn't so tired.

I Looked down at my compass again and waited for the dial to settle. Right on again, just take a few steps...

I stepped out with my left foot only to realize that the ground wasn't there. I fell strait down 3 or 4 feet, taking several branches and small tree's with me. I came to a crashing halt at the bottom of a dried up intermittent stream. My cover came off and fell into the dark. My compass left my hand. My rifle, once slung neatly on my back was now entangled in front of me. With that fall, a verse of my own cruse words sounded in the dark.

I sat there for a moment after my fall and started to laugh.

It was 2300 (11:00Pm) at night, I was exhausted, soaking in my own sweat, looking for a small steel box in an area that in which I could see as well as a blind man, practically walking like a blind man, and I had just near broken my ankle and lost half my gear.

What's not to like?



After a few hours of walking through the woods, I approached the command post near the road. Several Captains stood by the Humvee's with the engines running. The lights streamed from the cars and illuminated the rising dust from the road. I handed my card to one of them. To be very honest, I did not care if I passed. I was just glad to be out of the forest after 3 hours of walking.

It didn't take him long to grade my card.

"95" he said.


Guess i'm better off walking to my box with my eyes closed.

Thanks for reading :-)