Alfred Reno Bailey (1935 - 2019)
April 9, 2019 - Shipmate Alfred Reno Bailey crossed over the bar on March 1, 2019, at Charlotte, North Carolina. He was 84 years old.
Bailey was raised in the little mill town of Cliffside, NC, graduating high school in 1953 and enrolled at the University of North Carolina a Chapel Hill. He left school after a couple of semesters to fulfill his military obligation with a four year tour in the Coast Guard.
His interest in electronics took him down a predictable career path in the Coast Guard -
Reno became a Radioman. He served as a SEBAGO dit chaser just five months, from July to December of 1955.
Returning to Chapel Hill to finish his degree work, the class schedule included, among other things, electronics and journalism. That may seem an odd mix today, but in the mid 1950's there was a need for multi-talented radiomen in the relatively new field of local television. Bailey landed in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a job at an AM radio station, WBT.
In 1962 WBT blossomed into WBTV television on channel 3. For 21 years Reno Bailey was there as an established announcer and commercials writer, and he even had a hand in a kids program for a while.
His real interest was people; what they did and where they lived. That meshed well with the management at WBTV and Reno Bailey became their PR guy. He was the jovial face of the station that was always willing to listen to friends tell their story so that he could mold it into an interesting 60 seconds of advertising, a feature spot and, later in life, books about his childhood home of Cliffside.
Reno Baily has passed quietly from the scene, but his affection and admiration for the history of Cliffside continues in a couple of books and a really nice web site - RememberCliffside.com. Sebago Sailors that never had a chance to meet this shipmate probably missed a very interesting and likeable guy. Fair winds, shipmate.
"FIASCO Class Cutters"
E.A. Coffin Jr, CO of SEBAGO in 1948 and '49, was adamantly opposed to the 255's remaining in service. He was especially against the cutters being used for Ocean Station weather patrols. It was Coffin that dubbed the 255's the "FIASCO Class" in a letter to Commandant.
He wrote in part, "SEBAGO will back according to no rules found either from experience or in the seamanship books." and "The reaction of these vessels to any set of conditionsor wind and/or current is absolutely unpredictable."