Veterans James Jim and Nancy Bailey, of Damariscotta, met while serving in the Air Force in 1963. At the time, Nancy was a commissioned officer and Jim was a noncommissioned officer, but the couple did not let military tradition keep them apart. (Charlotte Boynton photo)
If they had paid attention to tradition in 1964, James “Jim” and Nancy Bailey, of Damariscotta, might not have enjoyed the life they have shared for the last 61 years. The Baileys met while both were serving in the U.S. Air Force and married within months of Nancy mustering out in 1964.
Jim grew up on a farm in Mississippi, enlisted in the Air Force in 1961, and attended basic training at the Lackland Air Force Base in Antonio, Texas. After basic, he received additional training in administration and health care-specific fields and was assigned to the Barksdale Air Force Hospital in Shreveport, La. as a health services administrator.
In 1963 he was transferred to the Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. At that time, Gunter Air Force Hospital provided inpatient and outpatient care, emergency services, and specialized services such as general surgery, internal medicine, and primary health care to military personnel and their families stationed at the base.
One of Jim’s duties at the hospital was analyzing and managing data. The work required him to visit the different nurses stations for daily reports.
“It was there I met my sweetie,” he said.
However, there was a complication. As an Air Force E-5, Jim was a noncommissioned officer, roughly equivalent to an Army staff sergeant. As a first lieutenant, Nancy was a commissioned officer.
In 1963, it was considered improper for an enlisted person and an officer to date. Such fraternization was considered a violation of military customs and tradition. Although it did not become an official prohibition across all branches of the military until the 1990s, it was highly frowned on in previous years.
Staff Sgt. James Bailey served in the U.S. Air Force from 1961-1966. (Courtesy photo)
Nancy, the daughter of late Oliver W. and Arlene Holmes, of Damariscotta, graduated from Lincoln Academy. Trained at Central Maine General Hospital as a registered nurse, she joined the U.S. Air Force in 1962 and had her military training at Lackland Air Base.
According to Jim, his wife’s basic training was not focused on combat training; it was an orientation of what the military was all about. Nurses who joined the Air Force in the 1960s as commissioned officers attended the Officer Training School, where the training was shorter and focused on officer development instead of intensive combat training.
When her basic training was completed, Nancy was assigned to the Gunter Hospital, where she met Jim.
The military tradition of enlisted and officer military members not dating did not discourage Jim from asking Nancy for a date. To his surprise, she said yes.
It was a date to remember, the couple said. Jim decided to take Nancy for a horseback ride on the base’s outdoor range. The ride was going very well until they decided to trade horses. Nancy said Jim’s horse was very calm while he was riding him, so she saw no problem in changing horses. The minute she mounted Jim’s horse, the horse took off running and all she could do was hang on.
“I don’t know how I survived that ride,” Nancy said. “I have never been on a horse since.”
“I tried to catch up but I couldn’t,” Jim said. “Lucky for me she gave me another chance. I never asked again to take her on another horseback ride.”
Jim and Nancy continued to date until she was discharged from the Air Force in 1964. They were married June 20 that year. Jim remained in the Air Force until 1966.
Nancy continued her nursing profession at a local hospital in Shreveport, La. When Jim was discharged, they moved to Maine. Jim went to work at his father-in-law’s company, Holmes Construction, and Nancy continued nursing at Miles Memorial Hospital, now MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital’s Miles Campus, in Damariscotta.
Nancy (Holmes) Bailey served in the U.S. Air Force from 1962-1964, reaching the rank of first lieutenant. (Courtesy photo)
The couple built their home in Damariscotta in 1969 and still lives in it today.
Building their home was a labor of love, the Baileys said. They had the house built for them, but they finished the interior of their home themselves while maintaining full-time jobs where they worked 12-16 hours a day.
Jim worked in construction with his father-in-law for three decades and spent another 16 years with the U.S. Postal Service sorting mail. Nancy continued nursing.
Now in what one might call their retirement years, they continue to give service to those around them, volunteering their time in a variety of ways to help others.
When they are not on the road volunteering or giving service to a friend or stranger, they work together making fleece blankets to sell at craft shows in the area. The blankets are made from fabric designed with U.S. military emblems.
The day the Baileys sat down to be interviewed, their willingness to perform simple acts of kindness became very clear when they were informed of a person whose car would not start and was stranded about a mile from their house. They immediately said they would go down to see if they could get the person started. Jim and Nancy put on their coats. Jim went to his garage to pick up a battery and off they went to help this person they didn’t even know.
“We are the happiest when we can do something to help someone else,” Nancy said.
