Second Lt. Ian Kirst, who commissioned from Xavier University in Ohio, spent his first several weeks at LTC perfecting the land navigation sand table to be a mini-version of the land navigation course. To produce the mock-up, he even ventured onto the course to clip samples from trees to use as replicas of the real thing. Photo by Heather Cortright/ LTC PAO.
By Caitlin VanOverberghe
Staff writer
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Northern Kentucky University and commissioning from Xavier University, 2nd Lt. Ian Kirst never thought his first assignment as an Army officer would be more or less an “art project.”
When he came to the Leader’s Training Course to work as a cadre member, he figured to be a squad tactical officer or work one of the situational training exercise lanes. He was placed with the land navigation committee, and his first task was to create a sand table — a mock-up of the terrain at the site.
“Putting together the sand table was basically like a fifth-grade art project where you take a picture and lay a grid over it, and do one grid at a time,” Kirst said. “Every day, I did something a little different.”
He spent one day laying out the grid he would follow. Another, he painted all the colors and laid out the roads. He built up mounds of sand to represent hills and created dips in the earth. He even lined its edge with Popsicle sticks to signify engineer tape cadre use to show to border the actual course.
In total, the sand table measures 18 feet by 18 feet and was built atop a flat surface at the land navigation site. Usually, it is destroyed after each LTC ends and a new one created at the start of each year. But this year, Kirst’s creation will live an extended life so Reserve unit that will use the site for their training in the next few months.
For years, sand tables have been used to assist in military planning. By duplicating a map or area, Soldiers are given the ability to see a terrain up close before encountering it.
The sand table at the LTC land navigation site helps Cadets do much the same thing. Rather than pointing to every individual’s map, Kirst could show Cadets certain points using the miniature version.
“It was great so the Cadets could really relate to what they were getting into,” said Lt. Col. Michael Wise, the land navigation chief who gave Kirst the model assignment. “They could see the severity of some of the inclines and hills and water areas.”
Kirst worked nearly 14 hours total on the project, changing things almost every day to the point that the model looked completely different at the end from when he was first given the assignment.
He has been told by those who have worked at LTC before that the sand table he produced is the most detailed the course has seen.
“I look at it and know that I could do better,” Kirst said. “But all it is is attention to detail. You just look at things on the map and copy them. It’s not hard to do, it’s just tedious.”
While he’s always been artistic, he had never pursued the skill in any way. Kirst had done similar models before, but nothing of this scale.
“At LDAC (Leader Development and Assessment Course), I did terrain kits for the STX (squad tactical exercise) lanes and I tried to replicate the terrain out there as best I could,” he said. “Those were much smaller and much more simplistic. This was much more in-depth.”
Working at the site has help Kirst hone his own land navigation skills.
“When you teach something, you learn it better yourself,” he said. “Working at a land nav course always improves your abilities. It just reinforces what you already know.”
