How to Move

Everybody made cracks about the Navy Department moving across the Potomac into the Army's sprawling, 42-acre Pentagon Building (even Secretary of War Stimson cracked: "The lion and the lamb are preparing to lie down together"). Then some Navy employes found on their desks an official-looking memorandum on U.S. Fleet stationery. Excerpts:

"Civilian personnel will be granted six days leave or will be required to retire at 6:30 p.m. for ten days prior to moving to the Pentagon.

"All personnel being moved will provide themselves with a sleeping bag, food and water for one week, clothing for one week, iron rations, three extra pairs of shoes, a compass, a scout knife, a pistol and roller skates or a scooter. No motorized equipment or collapsible boats will be permitted. . . . The War Department will issue walkie-talkies.

"All Section Chiefs will be suitably labeled and packed, complete with radio, along with their office equipment.

"Personnel are cautioned not to become panic-stricken by the great expanses of corridor (of which the Pentagon has 8 miles). Rumors concerning lost safaris in the Pentagon are hereby discounted, inasmuch as all but one of these safaris have been located and rescued. . . . Trained search parties will be on duty, and all corridor intersections will be patrolled at least once every two days."

At week's end the humorless admirals ordered Naval Intelligence to find the authors.

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