Reserve Officers Candidate School - Rocs and Shoals Yearbook (Long Beach, CA)

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THE ART CF NAVIGATING Navigation is a practical science, and as such many training aids can be employed to clarify the theories about which the text books always talk. At the left are shown a group of ROC Ones shooting the sun with their sextants on a mock-up ship used for training purposes. Much of the time in the advanced navigation course is concerned with celestial navigation. More compli- cated plotting situations and greater knowledge of radar, loran, and other means of electronic methods gave ROCS the final touches of their foundation in navigation before re- ceiving their bars. NAVIGATION stuov HALL fl Enlightenment often came. M Comm.nde,G.d....,.....C.,m..n...,,H.,., A xg L sl 0 w '. E 0 Zigi.:-5 l'c?T? YI Q0 I' 5 ' l cz 3 4' ' ' u ' - uwgg... 64 P l

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explained the various characteristics that a fighting ship might have that a Sub tender might not. lt delved into the complexities of writing a military letter, the vital study of damage control and the basic principles of military iustice. The Navigator is one of the most important indi- viduals on board any vessel, for it is his job to deter- mine the position of the ship for immediate reference by any and all departments on the ship. He is the person responsible for keeping many of the ship's logs. Still his biggest iob is navigation. He must be familiar with signs of the weather and have a knowl- edge of ocean currents, tides and winds. To deter- mine his position at sea he uses such instruments as the sextant, the pitometer, the compass, the chron- ometer and of course charts and maps. With all these items he must be familiar and have a knowl- edge of how to operate them, and, most important, his work must be dependable. Therefore, great em- phasis was placed on the study of basic and ad- vanced navigation. ln all the five weeks of studying, the ROCS had to learn these things as well as many others. As empha- sized before, the ways and means of any fighting organization depends on the training and spirit of its men. The Navy is only as good as her men . . . and with the college background and the enlisted train- ing ofthe ROC each candidate left this school to be- come another well trained addition to a great fighting force, the U. S. Navy. .,.,p.- ,v-.C-'k3 L-atv-ff rf' ., .,yfWJbr ' r4tMAS.s-4 I . pm,-,s.. in 'li x- av! MV: .3 1

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3vQilArf54, A COMPASS ROSE For Navigation, training aids to clarify theories. SHOOTING THE SUN To determine the position of the ship. , I X ,ax Nfl! fir, PW- 'I NAVIGATION, OLD AND NEW Instruments to determine position at sea. There was little trouble keeping the boys inter- ested and awake for navigation because most of them realized that as line officers aboard ship the responsibility for the men and the ships of the U. S-. Navy will be theirs. ROCS were faced with some diFficult problems that took plenty of patience and a good deal of hard work to solve. But aided by understanding instructors 'fsome could still remember their days as ensign candidatesl, the science of navigating at sea took shape in their minds. Before the six weeks were over, ROC Ones and Twos alike could say they came, saw, and con- quered the art of navigation. 65