(Nilo Ha Tien: A Novel of Naval Intelligence in Cambodia (Unabridged) by H.L. Serra)

This was one of those bright Fall mornings in Virginia’s Piedmont. A front of crisp brisk air rolled in. The dawn fought with the remaining cold night air to bring an odd sort of tension to the small group smoking out by the Fire Ring. It was a calm circle surrounded by an atmosphere filled with politics and bellicose talk. It ranged across topics from the current chaos to older times. Some of it was spurred by an obit on Phil Babb, who passed away last week. Talk about today mixed with the memories of a group of thirty-odd Old Spooks who had served in the Vietnam Conflict.

We here at The Farm are (occasionally) working on a book about the last great transition in the Intelligence business, the one a generation before Vietnam. That one came with the global reorganization after the conclusion of the Second World War. We were lucky- we had some pals who had lived it. That included luminaries in the trade: VADM Earl “Rex” Rectanus, RADM Donald “Mac” Showers, Jinny Martin and CAPT Sid Wood (among others) who lived our community developments in the context of the Vietnam conflict.

Splash was waving a copy of Larry’s book around for emphasis on Phil, and what it was like to be part of a great power’s intervention in a nation adjacent to another nation in which it had intervened. Larry had relieved Phil as one of the Naval Intelligence Liaison Officers (NILOs) in Ha Tien, Republic of Vietnam (RVN) in 1970. Phil was assigned there in 1969, the year some of us graduated from High School and the Draft a growing presence in our lives. Later, we worked with Larry on a project to memorialize the NILO Community several years ago.

There is a string flying around this week about development in the Naval Intelligence officer community. Due to the eclectic selection process in those times, NILOS represented a diverse cadre of the officer corps. It included young men from the warfare trades as well as intelligence. Phil and Larry demonstrated the variety of skills and longevity- Phil was seven years older than Larry, an Ivy League ROTC sourced Surface Warfare officer in his initial tour in the Navy. Here is Larry’s note:

Please pass to the NILO group:

“NILO Ha Tien (1969) Phil Babb passed away peacefully on FRI night (10/14/22) after a very long illness. I relieved Phil as NILO Ha Tien in FEBR 1970 just before the CB Incursion “hit the fan,” and Phil literally gave me the shirt off his back and a pair of jeans so I’d have something else to wear b/c the Army lost my seabags on the trip out to Ha Tien. Ironically, we both turned up and reunited in the Calif. Bar Review course in San Diego four years later, both practiced law and taught in university at San Diego.

Phil was ~7 years older than me, and we kept in touch regularly over the years and during our cases, teaching stints, and such, each providing a point of reference for each other from our knowledge of the other’s activities in our NILO tours. We also send a few bucks at Christmas each year to our beloved ARVN translator/driver, Sgt. Anh Le Duc, who in addition to his formal duties was a cheerful, buoyant force during our NILO tours.
RIP Phil.

V/R,
Larry Serra (NILO Ha Tien 1970)”

So, that was a respectful but vivid memory of the second to last organizational change, with input from some of the survivors of the leadership of that time who had experienced the change before that one at the end of World War Two. So, how many wars this morning? The one we are lurching toward now, the Cold War, Vietnam and World War 2?

We are still working on that one. Our small contribution for the end of the Cold War just went to press this week. We will talk about that one as the process winds forward, but here is what it will look like:

The one before that? No cover yet, but the men and women who lived it, like our folks, were still young and vigorous people when the two atomic flares extinguished Japan’s will to keep fighting and our modern world was born.

It is fascinating to see how these things lurch forward, isn’t it?

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