[stumpstalker]

Edgar:

You allude to the fact that a few years back folks that comprise our leadership class decided to drop celestial navigation from the mandatory curriculum for Naval officers coming out of Annapolis. The practice was just too passé (or gauche) to bother with, given the Advanced Electronic Age.

Then, it occurred to enough of those in our nation’s chancelleries that clever (or cleverer) nation states might have the capability and inclination to knock out our satellites, or jam their signals, rendering our Global Positioning System (GPS) devices moot.

So, they recently brought back teaching Midshipmen the art and science of navigating by the stars.

Although celestial navigation is not required of all U. S. Coast Guard licensees, mariners have never been allowed to rely solely on electronics, although they must use them if their vessels are so-equipped.

The analogy for us when hunting remote lands and waterways would be in our carrying a compass (or two) and a topo map, in addition to our electronic devices. Maps and charts don’t “break”, or malfunction if they get wet or stepped on; magnetic compasses don't "run down"; thus, the requirement for mariners.

Long-time sporting camp proprietors all seem to have a supply of stories of guests getting “lost” in the woods, and one camp owner I know of has observed that most of his hunters were chary enough about venturing much further than 150 yards from unmistakable signs of civilization, that they just didn't do it. The more recent prevalence of GPS devices may have tempered those inhibitions; but there are newer camp stories of batteries that unpropitiously discharged.