Florida Catholic | Veterans Day

Jack Bailey, 83, was assigned bodyguard duty during World War II for generals and other dignitaries, including Winston Churchill and King George VI of England. For nearly two years, Bailey was Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's guard.

Veterans Day

Chance conversation leads to assignment with Eisenhower

JENNIFER POWERS | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 11.09.07

MAITLAND | Jack Bailey didn’t have much time to make the transition from Jesuit high school senior to soldier.

“I graduated on a Sunday and by Wednesday I was in the Army,” said Bailey, who was born in Jersey City, N.J., and attended St. Peter’s Preparatory School there. Upon graduation in 1943, Bailey said, he left for training, arriving at the Infantry Replacement Training Center at Camp Croft in Spartanburg, S.C. Soon after, he was aboard a ship headed for Europe and the battlefield of World War II.

His destiny would take a turn, however, after a chance encounter on the ship with a man Bailey calls Col. Sheehan. After a week of infantry training in Europe, Sheehan requested that the young enlisted Bailey be transferred to the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in London, England.

Being an expert marksman, Bailey was assigned to bodyguard duty for the generals and other dignitaries, including Winston Churchill and King George VI of England, he said. One day in Paris, a general whom Bailey was guarding got out of his car and was approached by a civilian who attempted to stab him. With one well-targeted shot, Bailey stopped the attacker. That incident earned him a new assignment to guard the supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe — Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

During his nearly two years with Eisenhower, Bailey said, “If the general was there, I was there, and the general was everywhere.” Bailey drove the Cadillac that carried the general all over Europe, taking him to Holland, Normandy, France, Paris, Belgium and Germany. When he wasn’t driving, Bailey literally rode “shotgun” with a machine gun in order to protect Eisenhower, or followed him in a jeep. Bailey recalled that after the Germans surrendered, the Americans took over Hitler’s personal train. Bailey traveled with Eisenhower several times by train between Berlin and Frankfurt, Germany.

Later in the war, when he encountered what was left of his infantry unit, which had suffered horrendous casualties, Bailey realized what a blessing he received from his “guardian angel” Col. Sheehan.

After the war, Bailey went to college in New Jersey. He married Peggy and they raised seven children together in Lake Mohawk, N.J. After Eisenhower became president, Bailey had the privilege of visiting his former general at the White House. Peggy and Jack Bailey, now 83, live in Maitland and attend St. Margaret Mary Parish.

READ GENE SWARBRICK'S STORY HERE

Return to Diocese of Orlando Front Page

Chance conversation leads to assignment with Eisenhower

Other Stories