NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Naval Academy vs Celestial Navigation
From: Gordon Talge
Date: 1998 Jun 16, 7:51 PM
From: Gordon Talge
Date: 1998 Jun 16, 7:51 PM
My own personal opinion: The problem with our armed forces is that we have not ( thank God ) had to face a real enemy threat since the end of WWII. All threats have been localized. ie Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Iraq etc. If we ever get into it with someone who could match our power, like Japan and Germany in WWII, where we could have lost it, we might end up in a real jam. Just finished reading Samuel Eliot Morison's "The Two-Ocean War" the history of the U.S. Navy in WWII. Also a few of his 15 vol "History of the United States Naval Operations in World War II". Before we get too high and mighty, it might be of value to take a look at histories of Pearl Harbor, Singapore, Fall of the Philippines, Battle of Savo Island and a few others. Esp Savo Island. It would seem to me that several things could happen with the GPS in the event of war. ( Probably more ) 1) The enemy could break our codes and use our own GPS against us. Imagine getting hit with a missile with U.S. made parts and technology guided by our own GPS system! 2) The enemy could jam the GPS and make it unusable. Could steal military GPS units for their own use. 3) The enemy could knock out the GPS sats. in space. 4) Foreign or domestic hackers could screw up the computer systems. 5) Foreign or domestic sabatage of Nav and computers systems. 6) Some of our ships could get the "you know what kicked out of them" like in WWII. damaging navigation and communication systems. The enemy can't do anything to stop someone from using Celestial Navigation. It is totally safe, reliable, self contained, and effective means of navigation. Calculators and sight reduction tables take much of the drudgery out of the calculations. I think the Naval Academy is making a mistake. Being a High School and Community Collge math teacher I hear this kind of stuff all the time from parents and students. "I took algebra and trig in high school and never used it and I am 40 years old". Or "My dad says he got a D in trig and he turned out ok". Hope our Navy is not making the same mistake. BTW, anyone seen the movie "Down Parascope"? A WWII era submarine takes on the atomic fleet and wins! Could it happen in real life? -- Gordon ,,, (. .) +-----------------------ooO-(_)-Ooo----------------------+ | Gordon Talge WB6YKK e-mail: gtalge@pe.net | | Department of Mathematics QTH: Loma Linda, CA | | St. Joseph High School Lat. N 34� 03.1' | | Lakewood, California Long. W 117� 15.2' | | http://www.stjosephs.pvt.k12.ca.us | +--------------------------------------------------------+ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-= TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send this message to majordomo@roninhouse.com: =-=-= navigation =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-