Sure you probably already have a compass you’re thinking.  But the real Patriot has one that is Mil-Spec, meaning it meets battlefield endurance testing. 

The one you probably have is a pair of “glass panties,” meaning as soon as you drop your pack, your compass is just a pile of broken shit.  Not very smart to pack something so inferior in the first place, especially as your life or your team’s life may depend on it.  The only compass a true Patriot should be carrying is the Military G.I. issue Lensatic Compass with TRITIUM illumination.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of Hydrogen gas that is self-luminous all the time due to the radioactive decay.  It is harmless because it is extremely low energy, but you will never need to “charge” your compass with a flashlight, which by the way, you must assume that you won’t even have in the worst case scenario.  If you are stuck in the woods in the middle of the night, your batteries in all your equipment are dead, you would be up shit creek without a paddle unless you had this compass.

WHAT ABOUT GPS?  You should also have GPS.  But you should NEVER go anywhere without this compass as your trusty backup.  There is the possibility that the Pentagon may “re-task” GPS frequencies when NORTHCOM goes active.  This means your civilian GPS won’t be able to “tune” to the new channel they moved to, and effectively render it useless.  Does that mean that GPS is not worth having?  No.  Because even though it is possible, they would be cutting off their nose to spite their face because think of all the Police, EMS, Fire, Rescue, Homeland Security, etc. , etc. using GPS that is just like yours.  The point is GPS going down is extremely unlikely.  What is more likely than that is that your batteries will be dead.  In that case you need to know some basic fieldcraft and be able to pull out the G.I. Lensatic Compass from your mapcase or backpack and get the hell out of there.

I bought mine back in 1988 and it still kicks ass and takes names.  It’s been through hell.  Water, mud, been dropped, even ran over with a four wheeler once.  It still works like it’s new.  You roll up the lanyard and stuff it into an LC-1 First Aid/Compass pouch and forget about it.  Tritium has a half-life of 12.23 years, meaning that every 12.23 years it will be half as bright.  Like I said, mine is still working fine, even though it is not as bright as it once was in 1988.  But hey, what do you want for such a small investment?  If it works 20 years later, quit whining about it!

You have to make sure you get the authentic G.I. issue, with the TRITIUM.  Some versions made for the civilian market are made with a phosphorescent coating that requires you to “charge” them up with a flashlight.  DON’T BUY THOSE!  For one, you won’t have a charging source of light when you need it.  Two, charging your compass with a flashlight is going to compromise your position!  Look on the back of the compass, it will have a description that shows how much quantity of tritium (3H – Isotope of Hydrogen with three neutrons) and the words CONTROLLED DISPOSAL REQUIRED.  If none of this is listed on the back – DON’T BUY IT!

All points on the compass are marked with tritium (same substance used on night sights for weapons) including the sighting window and a large block under the numbers so you can read the degree or mils reading at night.

Another benefit to this compass is that the primary readout is in mils, and the secondary readout is in Degrees.  NATO countries, including the U.S. Military use Mils.  A mil is a more precise division of a circle.  In a circle divided by degrees, there are 360 divisions.  In a circle divided by mils, there are 6400 divisions.  Which do you think is more precise?

The angular mil is commonly used by military organizations. Its relationship to the radian gives rise to the handy property that object of size s that subtends an angle θ angular mils is at a distance d = 1000s/θ. Alternatively, if the distance is known, we can determine the size of an object by s = θd/1000. The practical form of this that is easy to remember is: 1 mil at 1 km = 1 meter (2π/6.4 ≈ 0.98 m in NATO countries where mil is defined to be 1/6400 of a circle). Another example: 100 mils at 2 km = 200 meters.

In the general case, where neither the distance nor the object size is known, the formula may be of little use. In practice, sizes of observed objects are known with reasonable accuracy since they are often people, buildings and vehicles. Using the formula, distances of the objects can be readily calculated without a calculator. In military terms, distances are of course essential for artillery bombardments and estimations of journey times.

Artillery forward observers are usually trained to estimate the number of mils using combinations of fingers, their fist, and hand held at arm’s length.

With the G.I. Lensatic Compass, this is relatively easy with the built-in sighting window.  You simply open the compass and adjust the sighting notch so that you can look through the notch and line up the vertical cross hair with the distant object you are looking at.  People familiar with sights on a rifle aren’t going to fret about being able to do this.

On the same arm as the sighting notch there is a small magnifying glass that allows you to move your eyeball ever so slightly to see the exact bearing you are on.  It’s that simple.

Now you can move to the right or left and measure the width of known objects in mils and determine the distance (range).  This is useful for planning maneuvers or calculating a firing solution for a sniper shot.

This sighting method is also used to fix a bearing on some landmark in the distance (tower, hill, building, etc.) that you can co-locate on a topographic map.  Once you can find two landmarks on the map that you can measure with the G.I. Lensatic Compass, you can lay those two lines on each object and the point where they intersect is your location.  Cool!  More on that later.

This compass also has a side rule on the side (when folded completely open on a map) that is useful for drawing lines.  As long as the map is turned to point north, you can rotate the compass and draw lines from your landmarks.  No protractor required, just the G.I. Lensatic Compass, the Earth’s magnetic field, and a pencil.  The scale is for metric military maps, not civilian topo maps issued by the U.S.G.S., however you can calculate the conversion, or better yet just buy software to print your own topomaps in military scales.

The bottom line is, this is a critical component of essential basic field gear that a true Patriot must possess, right along side with the Katadyn water purifier.  You can’t afford to be walking around in circles wasting energy and resources.  If you can’t make it to the  rendezvous point then you are a useless Patriot!

You can find these everywhere, but beware of the cheaper non-tritium version!!!   The best no hassle place to get gear where you won’t get screwed over is  Brigade Quartermasters.  They’ve been around for decades and only carry quality stuff used by active duty military and police. You can click the link below to go straight there to order yours.

CAMMENGA™ GI LENSATIC TRITIUM SELF-LUMINOUS FIELD COMPASS & CASE
  Military Features: • Tritium is self-luminous for 10 years to allow reading in total darkness with no external light source required • Sapphire Jewel bearing • Induction damped needle that stops swing in 6 seconds • No liquids used • Degree/Mil readings • Rotating Bi-directional Bezel • Five inch metric graduations • 1:50,000 • All metal hinged cast aluminum case • Thumb loop for stability • Magnifying lens in sighting bracket for dial reading • Neck lanyard • Climate capacity: -50 to +150 degrees Fahrenheit • Waterproof • Measures: 2-1/2” wide x 3” long x 1” deep. • LC-1 Olive Green Compass/ First Aid Pouch • Warranty • Military instruction card. • Made in USA.

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Filed under: Tutorials by Patriot75