Capt. Jonathan Springer hunkers down after a long day’s work inside what has become his home amid the rugged mountains of Afghanistan’s Pech River Valley.

Fresh from a staff meeting, the 31-year-old Columbia City native dedicates much of his day to realigning forces in the region to meet changing needs.

In his spare time, he’s glued to his iPhone and iPad trying to develop technological tools to help keep fellow soldiers safe in the future.

Springer is the battalion fire support officer with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division at Camp Blessing. A search of Google maps in northeast Afghanistan reveals a place labeled “Korengal Valley Start” with a review that calls it the deadliest place on Earth.

Springer’s phone call cut out four times during a 50-minute interview with The Journal Gazette.

“It’s an artillery fight here,” Springer said. “There’s snow on the mountaintops, it’s raining right now, and we’ve had kind of a mild winter. It’s good for the enemy; it’s not good for us.”

Although the current weather helps enemy forces, Springer aims to use a smart phone application he spent months creating to help U.S. forces.

The app uses a device’s GPS to track the user’s movements. Combined with a compass program and maps, the app allows users to take photos that can be labeled with the GPS coordinates and then sent to other users. A grid-map reference system can determine exact locations and locate others and then pass the information to other users linked through the application, called Tactical NAV.

Tactical NAV uses the Military Grid Reference System, and the app can tell where a soldier is within 24 feet, Springer said. Other features include a compass lock function and one-button night-mode function for use in little or no light.

“The compass lock feature is useful for calling for artillery and mortar fire, for instance,” Springer said. “It enables the user to sight in on an object and allows the compass to ‘lock’ in place so you have that specific coordinate and bearing data saved so you can relay that information to the howitzer fire direction center or to the aircraft above for fire missions. There are other uses for it as well, but that’s the one that I use it for constantly over here because I’m an artilleryman.”

Soldiers on patrol who encounter enemy fire from a rock ledge to the west, for example, can use Tactical NAV to take a photo of the rock ledge and send the information to soldiers firing artillery shells. The rock ledge is a waypoint – a point in physical space used for navigation purposes – and can be marked as such with Tactical NAV.

The exact location will allow response fire with pinpoint accuracy.

Springer began selling Tactical NAV for use on the iPhone and the iPod Touch on Feb. 14. It costs $5.99 to download and is available online at tacticalnav.com.

Awareness

The Army is testing the feasibility of giving smart phones and other hand-held technology to soldiers in the field through its Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications program.

According to USA Today, a plan to roll out smart phones, network equipment and applications to the first Army brigade was to take place last month.

“In the industry, there are a lot of people looking at these kinds of apps,” said John Stalnaker, a program manager at Raytheon in Fort Wayne, which manufactures integrated communication systems, command-and-control battle systems and combat systems.

“The Army is trying to move that way and find the apps that the soldiers need.”

During two tours in Iraq and his current tour in Afghanistan, Springer said he noticed many soldiers used smart phones or iPod Touch to play games or listen to music.

The military issues bulky GPS units that are heavy, costly and may not be as accurate or reliable, Springer said.

He said some soldiers spend hundreds of dollars of their own money for smaller GPS units that are more accurate and easier to transport.

Springer said Tactical NAV enables soldiers returning from patrol to take location data they recorded and share it for planning future missions. When soldiers engage enemy forces, they want to be sure they have a reliable location and navigation device, Springer said.

He thought there had to be a better option that would allow soldiers and military leaders to better coordinate their location.

“From a leadership standpoint, I started to think, ‘What can I do to protect my soldiers,’ ” Springer said.

Techy to tactical

Springer calls himself an early adopter of all things Apple.

Apple launched its iPad tablet computer in 2010, and Springer decided to wait in line to ensure he’d get one rather than help prepare for his wedding, which was the following week.

“He got there at 4 o’clock in the morning, which is funny because he thought he was going to beat the crowds,” said his wife, Katie Springer. “No one got in line behind him until 8 o’clock, so he was there by himself for four hours with the lawn chair, sitting in the Best Buy parking lot.”

Jonathan Springer’s love of technological gadgets helped him to develop his idea when he began to see the need. But he lacked a lot of the technical know-how, so Springer spent three weeks trying to learn how to write the appropriate computer code.

After deciding he was wasting vital time, he hired some help. He asked Las Vegas-based Raster Media to develop the app.

After she began to see her husband’s dedication to developing Tactical NAV, Katie Springer said the newlyweds decided to sit down and discuss finances.

“We’re putting a lot of money into this. This isn’t money we have sitting around,” said Katie, a social worker in Fort Wayne.

“This is a true family business venture. We borrowed money hoping it has return.”

The potential for customers increased with the release of the iPhone 4 and when Verizon began offering the phone on its network. While both happened after the app was in development, the Springers said both will boost the number of potential clients.

More than 400 customers have bought Tactical NAV to date, Jonathan Springer said.

Springer said the app’s first update will be out soon. There also are plans to design a version for phones that use Google’s Android operating system.

But does it work?

Tactical NAV targets military users, outdoor enthusiasts, hikers and hunters.

Springer said he put his app to work while on patrol. In one instance, he said, while leading a convoy his military-issued GPS unit malfunctioned. He used Tactical NAV and was able to provide nearby Apache helicopters the convoy’s position.

“The only way I could give it to them was using” Tactical NAV, he said.

Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan Lincoln received Tactical NAV as a gift from Springer.

Lincoln said he has used the app on his iPhone for about six weeks during his deployment to Afghanistan.

“I like how rapidly you can change between the different features,” Lincoln said. “If you’re trying to coordinate within a firefight, you can’t be waiting to use different pieces of equipment.”

Springer said he will work to add features to the app from Afghanistan until his tour is up in May, at which time he’ll return to Fort Wayne to see his wife and family and catch up on Notre Dame football.

From there, the couple will move to Fort Campbell, Ky., for two more months. The Springers then head to Maryland while Jonathan is trained as a public affairs officer.

“I plan to stay in the military, and this is kind of a side project that’s taken on a life of its own,” he said. “I don’t plan to, nor do I expect to, make lots of money on this.”

dadams@jg.net