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The Command Post Tent
It will have a sign at the side of the road at the entrance, and hopefully it will be in
some sort of reflective paint, so you can see it - if you are using an illegal light, or if the
moon is bright. Otherwise, you had better get out and search on foot until you trip over it.
Often there is a sentry at the entrance, but you can't depend on his challenging you before
you turn off the road. He may like to keep a low profile.
If the CP is at a road intersection, you then must keep trying until you find which
one of the roads the sign is on, and which side of the road.
So, all right: you've found the entrance, given the password, and satisfied the
sentry that you're OK. You lead the jeep inside, holding something white for the driver to
follow, get it parked out of the way, and get out your plexi-glass map case. Now you have
to locate the blacked-out CP tent, which will be somewhere in the acre or two of ground
that the CP and its support elements occupy. There are several methods: the standard one
is to ask. You may find someone still awake and roaming around; if not, you will
undoubtedly step on a soldier sleeping on the ground and bring him to a dazed and
resentful consciousness sufficient to hear your question.
At any rate, the answer you will probably get is, "It's right over that way, sir," as
the person points an invisible finger. Or maybe, "How the hell should I know?"
Another system is to grab hold of that telephone line that caught you by the toe
and follow it to the end, which will probably be at either the CP tent or the switchboard.
If it's the switchboard, the operator there can hand you another wire, which does go to the
CP tent. (Of course there is always the possibility that you are following the first line in
the wrong direction, will end up several miles away and have to follow it back.)
But eventually you find it. It is that black blob with square corners against a black
background. There's no doubt that this is your destination, for you can hear the muffled
sound of voices inside and the hiss of a Coleman lantern. Now there is only one problem
remaining: where is the entrance?
It seems simple enough: there being only two ends, the entrance has to be at one
or the other. But in the blackness it is hard to tell a side from an end, or which way the
entrance faces when you do find the right end. So you grope your way all around,
bumping into each guy rope as you go by, making the entire tent lurch.
You do get a lot of helpful advice from inside: e.g. "Watch were you're going, you
clumsy bastard!" Or, "The entrance is up that way, stupid!"
Eventually, you either find the entrance or someone 'emerges from the tent and
leads you inside.
The time I spent learning to find and enter a CP tent was an education which has
been useful all my life. I still consider myself a handy person to have during a power
failure: I can grope my way around with much less light than most people and can often
find my way to the candles-even to the matches, although I am apt to spill them all over
the floor when they do come to hand.
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