About 10 years ago there was a joke video circulating with the song “Whatcha Gonna Do PL?”. It made light of the stress simulated at U.S. Army Ranger School, including the stress that comes from being tired, hungry, and worst of all – lost. We laugh at this now, but being lost is no laughing matter – especially when in combat. In the “light” community, where you are traveling walking distances in a single movement, folding up your map and putting it in your cargo pocket is a tenable option. But, what if you are moving operational distances from 30 to 60 kilometers in a single movement? A folded up map won’t cut it. Here is your guide to making a map board that will aid you in mounted movements (Stryker, Bradley, MATV, MAXPRO, HMMWV, Abrams, etc.).
When moving in a vehicle, especially vehicles where you are outside the hatch and open to the elements, a map board is a very useful tool. I usually carried two maps. One map was in my map board and the second was a laminated dismounted map specific to the objective where I would be dismounted. Sometimes the dismounted map would have satellite imagery with reference data for building numbers or other important information. The dismounted map was in my cargo pocket or map holder and my map board stayed in the vehicle.
Supplies Needed
This is a very easy tool to assembles. All it takes is a few supplies and about 30 minutes to assemble.
- 2x Pieces of Plexiglass. I opted for thicker, more sturdy, plexiglass. You can get it at Lowes, Home Depot, or most other hardware stores. You can tailor it to the size you want, but I used a 1.5ft x 2ft dimension
- 100mph tape (Duct Tape or Electrical Tape will also work)
- Laminate (for your references on the backside of the board
- Quick Reference Outlines
- Box of Binder Clips
Assembling the Board
Assembly is very easy. Just follow these steps.
- Tape the edges of each board with 100mph tape for protection and to help seal it from the weather.
- Laminate each of your templates and reference documents (see links below for examples) for added protection.
- Place your templates face down on one piece of your plexiglass. Place them in an order that will be intuitive for your use.
- Either 100mph tape or laminate the entire backside of your reference products to attach them to the plexiglass.
- Place your map on the plexiglass (on top of the attached references) facing up.
- Place the second piece of plexiglass on top of the map and attach with binder clips.
Reference Sheets/Templates
I used the following templates for the back of my map board (Some had to be cut down to fit the space):
- Combat PowerTracker: I used a blank unit UMR so I could custom fill it in before the operation and use it as a combat power tracker. I could take notes on personnel (losses or injuries) and vehicles (firepower, mobility, comms, or catastrophic kill). This will vary by formation and unit SOPs. MTOEs vary and they change. This is just a reference.
- OPORD Development Checklist (I also used, but not on the map board, an OPORD Brief Checklist)
- DTAC Doctrine Mat Official (14 Sept 2016)
- Red Checklist: I used this as an enemy combat power tracker.
- Mission/Key Tasks/ Purpose/ End-State for 1 and 2 Levels Up
- Concept Sketch
Don’t be the guy/gal fumbling with a map, blowing in the
wind, and getting rained on. The more organized you are, the quicker you can communicate and make decisions to take advantage of windows of opportunity to gain a relative advantage. What analog products or tools do you use for battle tracking on the move? Comment below or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter with #TheRucksack.
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