Competition out of limits?

[ZipperHead]

Originally posted by bossi:
[qb] Fascinating, Allan.
So, in other words you‘re saying that pointing the hour hand at the sun, and then bi-secting it and 12 noon doesn‘t point North (in the Northern hemisphere)?

Oh, by the way - I may be picking fly-sh!t out of pepper here, but I didn‘t say "magnetic" compass - you‘re the one dug yourself into a hole when you leapt to an incorrect assumption in that regard
(compass - noun - a navigational instrument for finding directions). [/qb]

Compass - noun - Drafting instrument for drawing circles. Also: noun - The limit of capability. Also: verb - Get the meaning of something.

The hole I‘m in is only to my knees. I can barely see the top of your head from my hole

Anyway, you can use the time that you read off of a digital compass, apply it to a drawing, diagram, etch it onto a silver plater, carve into stone, etc, and then apply the same principle as with an analog watch.

Try getting (and setting) an accurate time check with a cheap *** analog (read: old army issue, lose 15 minutes per day) watch. Yes, the Gucci $100+ analogs can have the second hands paused or reset, but the good old $30 Ironman style has worked for me for the last 20 years and better.

Al :tank:

 

[Armymedic]

OK Al and bossi, easy now... Two old guys going at it over a slight missunderstanding....

You can find South by using the hands of a wrist watch. Close enough, ok gents?

Now you two kiss and make up.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

What if it is cloudy out?

If the numbers are including Reserve officers, many of them are still in University finishing their degrees and this may be effecting the numbers a bit.

There are also many degree holders serving as NCMs throughout the reserves.

US academic institutions seem to have lower standards in many cases (Harvard and Yale et al notwithstanding). The same goes for the US military, and I‘m sure that is the case especially now that they are desperate for manpower. A friend of a friend here joined the USMC and was embarrassed to find that written exams had astonishingly low pass rates, and many Marines, at least in her experience, would pass with 60% scores even after having been given all the answers!

There is probably some urban legend to that, but our unit did see tangible proof of the quality of US training, too.

As reported in the Maple Leaf, in 2002, 54 troops from our regiment went to train with the Washington Army National Guard. They were doing their Army Expert Infantry Badge speed march, a distance of 19.3 kilometres. Our regiment was invited to participate.

The march was timed, and the US CO planned to give out special coins to the 15 top place finishers. Top place went to one of our corporals who did it in 2 hours 6 minutes, (an average of 22 kg of load was carried by all troops, also) and in fact all 15 coins went to Canadians. There were lots of dropouts among the US troops, reportedly - not for medical reasons, but because they looked at their watches, said "well, we‘ll never finish in time" and then gave up.

The same National Guard unit just deployed to Iraq not long ago.