American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U. S. Military History

NAV
 
S
CHOOL
B
esides sniper school, I had been “volunteered” for nav school by
my chief. I went reluctantly.
Navigating is an important skill in combat—without a navigator,
you don’t know how to get to the battle, let alone how to get away

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you don’t know how to get to the battle, let alone how to get away
when you’re done. In a DA (direct action) scenario, the navigator
figures out the best way to the target, comes up with alternatives,
and guides the fire team to safety when you’re done.
The problem is, SEAL navigators often don’t get a chance to
actually fight in the DA they navigate to. The way we set things up,
the navigator is usually assigned to stay in the vehicle while the rest
of the unit breaks into the house or whatever. That’s so he can be
ready in case we need to get out fast.
Sitting in the passenger seat plugging numbers into a computer
was not exactly where I wanted to be. But my chief wanted
someone he could count on planning the routes, and when your
chief asks you to do something, you do it.
I spent the whole first week of nav school frowning at a desk in
front of a Toughbook laptop computer, learning the computer’s
functions, how to hook up to a GPS and manipulate the satellite
imagery and maps. I also learned how to take the images and paste
them onto PowerPoint for briefings and the like.
Yes, even SEALs use PowerPoint.
The second week was a little more interesting. We drove around
the city—we were in San Diego—plotting and following different
routes. I’m not pretending it was cool, though—important, yes, but
not very exciting.
As it happened, though, it was my skills as a navigator that got
me to Iraq ahead of everyone else.

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