Gentle Readers: if you were expecting a blow-by-blow on the Debate, or an account of how many sips and slugs it took to get through the drinking game to go along with it, you will be waiting a while. Possibly until one of the candidates accepts what is going to happen in the polls in only a handful of days. Then all this nonsense will be over. In the meantime, I am happy for the Cleveland Indians and the lovable Cubbies from Wrigleyville. But for a change of pace, this tale came over the transom from another era, and I thought you might get a kick out of how intelligence used to be done by our dauntless corps of Attaches, assigned to hot spots around the world since the Office of Naval Intelligence began sending them our nearly 150 years ago. This is a story of the unique partnership between the intelligence professionals, enlisted and officer, in places where there are no rule books and everything is done flying by the seat of the pants. – Vic
20 October 2016
1st Class Petty officer REX RUMLER (CAIRO)
Reminiscences of an old school Intelligence Officer.
By Bill Bailey
It was during the 1960’s, during the period when Nasser ruled Egypt, when the Soviets were well entrenched in the United Arab Republic.
The profession moves along so quickly nowadays, that one often forgets the lessons of the past. As I sit and wax nostalgic in a more quiet moment or two, I often think back to the close partnerships one creates over a career. One of those , in a time not so long ago, as a Cold War Attaché in Egypt, , my closest intelligence partner was a first Class Petty Officer, with whom we shared many adventures which I can only tell after years have passed.
As basic intelligence requirements were increasing and current intelligence was becoming more urgent, it was obvious there was an increasing need for expanded road trips. The old embassy cars were hardly suitable for over desert, rough terrain, and sandy beach travel, so a more suitable four-wheel drive vehicle was requested. Unfortunately, it was during the period of concern over the “gold flow” issue, thus our request for a Land Rover was ignored (a vehicle that blended in nicely amidst the locals ). We could only buy American. So what the hey, though conspicuous, a jeep would do. Unfortunately it was during the Vietnam War, so no jeeps were available for attaché duty. A heavy-duty Dodge power wagon was to be sent…but after several months we were provided a Navy Grey International van.
So much for being conspicuous.
Every week or so, I would drive from Cairo to Alexandria to liaise with the U.S. General Counsel and to check out the Egyptian Naval base and Eastern Bloc Russian activity at the port. During a break in trip for the new vehicle, I decided to try some beach studies along the Mediterranean towards Libya. On our travel request, I listed Mersa Matrouh as our destination. Along the way, Rex and I did some beach and road studies, but once done, we still had to complete our requested travel destination. We reached Mersa Matrouh just as the sun was setting. I turned to Rex and said that since we were here, we might as well go down to the tiny harbor and look around. So we drove on to the small pier….only to be greeted by the unbelievable sight of four Komar Missile Patrol boats with missiles in the tubes. Thank goodness it was dark by then, as our Navy Grey International would have been a dead give-away. We boogied out quickly, checked into our sleeping quarters, rose early the next morning to see what was what.
Through my binoculars, I could see an Egyptian Navy contingent loading vehicles and the Komars were just leaving. We raced to a point, took pictures, and then I decided to follow the trucks to see where they were going. It was clear they were headed for the one major road toward Alexandria, so I decided to conduct a “front tail” by keeping several miles ahead of them, while Rex kept an eye on them a few miles behind us in the desert.
This went on about an hour, everything copasetic ……….When suddenly, there was big bang, a lurch, and our vehicle just jammed to a stop, throwing us against the windshield. What was that?…..we got out only to find that the rough road had jostled the engine mounting bolts and had sheared two of them. The engine had fallen onto the road! Oh my……and the group we were tailing, was rapidly approaching. I crawled under the vehicle and told Rex to smear dirt on the diplomatic license plate, cover all the cameras and binoculars and anything that looked Navy and to look sufficiently nonchalant that they would drive on by.
But no! The small convoy stopped and a young officer asked me (under the vehicle) if we needed help. What could I say….”Yes, thank you”. He hollered back to the officer in charge, who dispatched a team of mechanics (after all they were a Komar support group), who remounted the engine, secured it and started it up. To show our gratitude, we rode along with them for a while, until the unit commander, forcefully beckoned us on away from them. And that my friends, was the first verification of Komars being in Egypt.
When the Dodge Wagon finally arrived and it was travel tested, the two of us applied for a drive to Libya. The wagon was fitted for the trip and parked within the embassy grounds. That was Thanksgiving…….an evening where we became cocktail hoisters to other embassies. Just as I was sitting down to the Thanksgiving repast, the phone rang for a LT Bailey. The embassy was under attack by rioters angered over America’s stance on Patrice Lumumba in the Congo.
The attaches being the second line of defense to the Marine Security Guard, I was on my way, By the time I arrived the Embassy was on lock-down and all gates were locked. While fighting through the crowds and finding no entry, and ran toward the embassy wall and leapt to a handhold at the top. The crowd below watched with great delight and an English speaker called up to me and asked “Why didn’t you use the gate?” It seemed that after I had found it locked against the crowd, the security guards had opened it to allow other embassy personal in. Oh well! I dropped down on the inner side only to find that our vehicle had all of the windows broken by the rioters. There goes the trip…until I recognized that the nearest source of a replacement windshield was Wheelus Air Base in Libya.
I convinced the powers that I had to go…repairs, travel permit, and the mission. OK! I called my partner, Rex, then got the motor pool to replace the broken windows with plywood and to knock out the broken windshield. We left the next morning.
I drove. While enroute, we measured the entire road from Alexandria to Wheeles, entered every culvert, bridge, gavel road and took pictures of every change in the road surface, while slipping, where appropriate, to the beaches and took innumerous pictures, measured the beaches and the water depths, etc. But, at one beach, long off a road, I noticed a tent on the cliff above, where an Egyptian soldier had just emerged with a rifle in hand. Whoops; we jumped in the vehicle and took off down a ravine. Front wheel drive? Yes, but you had to adjust it at a stop outside the Dodge Wagon!
I told Rex to hunker down and put the vehicle to the floor board. Quite a ride…but it got more exciting when I heard shots and a couple of bullets came through the plywood and hit the floor between us. I peeked up to through the vacant windshield and steered while reaching blind from the floor. We made it!!! But, I said to Rex breathing heavily, “ You know, Rex, I think I’ll leave this beach to my successor!” As to our time in Libya; that is a different but memorable story for another time
Rex is long deceased now; but there were so much of Egypt and Libya we had shared, camping in a two man tent and eating tins of rations left from WWII and washing with salt water soap in the Red Sea and the Med.
Before he was transferred back to the U.S. we shared one last quick adventure. As I essentially planned my own lintel trips, neither one us really knew what would be ahead of us in our travels. By the third year in Egypt, I drafted my travel requests rather loosely. The various embassies knew that Nasser was toying with Yemen, but to what extent? Planes would return from the south on a regular basis and more leaving the reverse direction. But, to where? It was obvious that troops had also been sent and there was a war brewing in Yemen.
I filed a transportation request for my routine visit to the Red Sea in a regular embassy sedan, which was approved, and Rex and I started off to the Port of Suez and turned south along the Red Sea coast, occasionally stopping to study a port or another beach. At one area, I would send Rex one direction and I would go another. We were out roaming for about two hours and I returned to rejoin Rx. Only to find, he was in the custody of an Egyptian guard with a rifle pointed at Rex’s head. What to do? Hmm! I walked hurriedly to the Egyptian guard and hollered at him accusing him of laxness. He replied in Arabic and I told him that we had been here for over two hours and you had not noticed us.
“ I will notify your officer of your laxness and report you to Cairo!” He lowered his rifle and Rex probably thought I was nuts, but things changed rapidly. The soldier said go…go and please do not report me.
Did we….? You guess.
Now what…back on the road, I had a thought. We had brought two full jerry cans of petrol, so “let’s see how far we can go south.” Covering the jerry cans, off we went. About an hour later, we ran up to a blockade and the sentry made it clear we could go no further. Since we were on the outskirts of a large village, I pleaded with him to permit me to buy gas there. “NO!” I showed him my gas gauge, which was on empty (It was actually inoperable). We argued as to what we were to do. The soldier finally relented and raised the gate after receiving a promise that we would be back quickly. Once on the road, I opened it up and finding an isolated spot filled the gas from one of the cans and took off. After about another hour plus we found ourselves in Ras Gharib and by driving a bit further, finding our selves at a huge air field, well equipped and very busy. Oh Wow! We took two rolls of film and got out of there as quick as we could.
By the time we had returned hours later at the blocked gate, we had used the other jerry can to refill any of the gas we had used and apologized for being so late, for we had run out of gas. I got out of the car and chatted with the sentry for about ten minutes and then pulled out a cigar, which I presented to him as a friend and thanked him again before we drove off to Cairo.
To the best of our knowledge……We were the first ones to locate Nasser’s operating base in his war in Yemen…….Well, we would like to think so!
Partnership…….officer, chief, enlisted, man, woman, etc.; the important lesson is that one does well when they are on the same wave link. Thank you, Rex!
William (Bill) Bailey, 1630 CDR Retired
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