Pilot on a mission to help vets

July 7, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

WASILLA - Maurice Bailey is a man with a mission to help others, and he has been digging into this own pocket for about a year to bring it to fruition.

Bailey, a pilot and aircraft mechanic, retired from an Army career in 1976. Kicking around Alaska since then, fishing and twisting wrenches, he met many veterans in Bush Alaska who barely were scraping by.

&#8220I realized those guys weren't getting taken care of,” Bailey said. &#8220They had no clue what benefits they are eligible for.”

That bothered Bailey so much he became a certified service officer for disabled American veterans. He flies out to villages and gives seminars to veterans about their benefits, letting them know about health care and other options. And he has been doing it on his own nickel, flying his twin-engine Apache.

&#8220I have a voice because I am one of them,” he said. &#8220I don't get paid. None of us do. We all volunteer.”

When Bailey said, &#8220us,” he referred to a small group of veterans, loosely organized into their own &#8220air force,” called Veterans Aviation Outreach. The group's mission is to help their less-fortunate compadres in rural Alaska.

On his last trip, Bailey flew up around Lake Illiamna, visiting King Salmon, Naknek, Egegik and Dillingham in two days, talking about veterans services and helping interested vets fill out forms.

&#8220We signed up 29 vets in two days,” Bailey said. &#8220The oldest was 90. He was gut shot twice in World War II. He cut off his leg himself when he was trapped in an airplane. We put in for an increase in his pension. The next oldest was 84.”

Bailey was born in Memphis and joined the army in 1956, when he was 17. His overseas assignments included three tours in Vietnam, the first in 1962.

&#8220It was easy duty then at Quinhon, up on the coast,” he said. &#8220It was a kicked-back deal. I never heard any gunfire. I thought it was pretty cool.”

Being a helicopter mechanic at the time meant Vietnam was pretty much an automatic assignment for a career man, he said. He went back a second time as a sergeant in 1968, and was stationed in Cuchi with the 25th Aviation Battalion, right on top of the now-famous tunnels.

&#8220That was the real deal,” he said. &#8220I wasn't prepared to get shot at on a daily basis.”

Bailey flew about 100 missions a month as a flight engineer. Sometimes the daily gunfire hit his ship, but he never got shot down.

Before he took his third tour in Vietnam in 1970 at Tuyhoa, Bailey was stationed at Fort Richardson. And he came back from Tuyhoa to Fort Wainwright, where he retired.

&#8220I didn't want to stay in Fairbanks,” Bailey said. &#8220I left there and went out to Naknek, working for the Air Force base as a heavy equipment operator. And I fished for a couple of years.”

But Bailey couldn't leave his aviation background behind. He got a fuel truck to sell aviation gas and started doing aircraft maintenance at a hanger, staying until 1987.

He moved to the Valley then, commuting to the old Reeves hangar in Merrill Field, working on airplanes and helicopters before moving back to Naknek in 1994. He borrowed money to start another business, and worked on airplanes in Naknek for about three years.

&#8220The fishing went belly up,” he said. &#8220I had to leave because I was broke.”

Bailey clearly remembers his flight back to Palmer that Christmas Eve.

&#8220It was forecast for extremely windy and gusty,” he said. &#8220The weather was so bad, I was going to land at Birchwood, but decided to push on. It was like God parting the Red Sea. And then I landed and it kicked back up again.”

Bailey was flat broke, he said. But like before, he borrowed small sums of money from a lot of friends and started his propeller-balancing business in Wasilla.

&#8220They loaned me money because I kept paying them back,” he said. &#8220I've traveled all over the state as Alaskan Airplane Maintenance.”

As Bailey traveled with his work, finding veterans all over the state, he also found an old friend.

&#8220My friend who is the Web master for the 25th said Chuck Moore was in Willow,” Bailey said. &#8220I went up to meet him again and we've been talking ever since.”

When Bailey was a Huey flight engineer in Vietnam in 1968, Moore was his helicopter pilot. Now, Moore is chief of operations for Veterans Aviation Outreach.

&#8220He has the most experience,” Bailey said. &#8220We don't ego trip about it.”

Bailey and Moore already have helped many veterans on their own nickel. Recently, they have received some food assistance from Tom Baird of Willow, head of the Mat-Su chapter of the Christian Pilots Association of Alaska. The women's auxiliary of the American Legion Post #15 donated $600 to the cause.

&#8220They inspired us and we got excited because they believed in us,” Bailey said.

But there are still many people who need their help, and Bailey said he hopes others will step up with money, materials or labor.

He showed photos of some veterans in need. One Vietnam vet lives in a corrugated metal shack at the edge of the lake in Naknek, another lives in an old beached wooden boat and another is bound to a wheelchair. That man has a house and a wife, but no ramp to make it easier to get in and out of the house. The man depends on his wife to get his wheelchair down the steps to the garage, but has to stay there until she gets home from work.

&#8220If I do nothing else the rest of my life, I'm going to build him a ramp,” Bailey said.

Bailey's first wife left him, he said, but he moved on from that experience.

&#8220The old wife and old house divorced me,” he said,with a laugh. &#8220I got the airplane. That's all I wanted. I had the airplane before I had her.”

For Bailey, growing up poor in Memphis, joining he military was the best thing he could have done. Life has been good to him, letting him find a new wife, Ann, in Tasmania.

&#8220My life has been good,” Bailey said. &#8220I got this God thing sorted out. Now I'm able to do positive things, and it just takes getting down and doing it. You know, we're just passing through.”

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@frontiersman.com.