Bob
Babas
Babas
2LT · Range ·
In-Country Service
–
Home of Record
Character of Service
Honorable
Archive Status
Active
Sourced entirely from CPT Henry Colavita's memoir, "Company Grade: Memoir of an Angry Skipper" (Hellgate Press, 2015), ch. 9, "Chicken Valley" -- see the chapter digest at site/sources/colavita/09-chicken-valley/09-chicken-valley.digest.json. No independent service record yet.
1968-12 (approx)
Platoon Leader
Swapped into D Company at Christmas, takes Rifle Range platoon
At Christmas 1968, Colonel Frank Henry (battalion CO) took Lt. Michael Johnson off Colavita's hands -- Johnson had been found lying at the bottom of the CP foxhole during the Dec 4-5 night mortar attack, claiming he was "checking the perimeter," and was privately judged by Colavita and the Rifle Range NCOs to have shown "no initiative, no leadership ability" -- and gave Colavita a newly arrived, "green" second lieutenant in return: Bob Babas. Babas took over Rifle Range (3rd Platoon) and held it for the remainder of Colavita's command, paralleling 2LT David Spingath's tenure at Wild Cat (2nd Platoon). See soldiers/colavita-henry and soldiers/spingath-dave.
⚠ Source Notice — Multiple Accounts Exist
Per CPT Henry Colavita's memoir, ch. 9 ("Chicken Valley").
1969-03 (approx)
Named in a group photo as "Rifle Range 6"
Appears in a group photograph in Colavita's memoir, captioned "the author (far left) with platoon leaders (left to right) Bob Babas (Rifle Range 6), Dave Spingath (Wild Cat 6), and Preston Karr (White Skull 6)." The photo is undated in the book but must postdate 1LT John Karr's confirmed 12 March 1969 arrival in-country -- see soldiers/karr-john. This is a different photo from the one used for Babas's own profile portrait here, which was separately supplied.
⚠ Source Notice — Multiple Accounts Exist
Per CPT Henry Colavita's memoir, ch. 9 photo caption; date bounded by Karr's confirmed arrival date. See also soldiers/spingath-dave/photos/profile/index.md, which uses a crop of this same group photo.
Did You Know Bob, or Serve Alongside Bob?
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