CPX the Sequel

“Halt. State your name.”

Ugh... I forgot about this part.
“EA2”

“Do you know the password?”

I smile slowly.
“No. But I know enough that I know you’re not supposed to ask like that.”

He smiles back.
“That’s good enough. You can pass.”


The exercise was crazy low key. As we were sitting around in the CP tent LT E. walked up and decided he wanted to make sure I understood the boards. First we looked at the fire plan and he started talking about grazing fire and indirect fire and how to notate them on the plan. We talked about using terrain to decide where to place the crew serve weapons. And we talked about chemical reports and symbols on the map. I learned a lot and was activly engaged in our conversation. But he lost me with, “When you get comfortable with a map you will begin to learn that up is 0, right is 90, south is 180, and so on.” As a matter of fact I am comfortable with maps, and more to the point I’m comfortable with circles and all of the 360 degrees that fill them. I’m a surveyor and can confidently report that I’m pretty good at it. But I couldn't get snarky. I was happy to have the LT there.