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Saco, Maine, 04072
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Wallace and Jane Nutting: A General and his Wife

STORY BY MRS HALL'S CP ENGLISH 10
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CARL WALSH
DESIGN BY JOHN MORRELL

For a General, time is marked by war. Wallace Nutting is no exception and he tells his life story as it corresponds to assignments around the world from Korea, to Europe, to Vietnam to Latin America, all across the US and finally to Washington where he served four tours in the Pentagon and in retirement trained other Generals in leadership and combat.

But he also has another framework he draws from: his marriage to his wife Jane for over half a century. One immediately senses when watching the pair engaged in conversations that their life is a partnership and that the proud General's many accomplishments are a product of their combined sensitivity, power, wisdom, intelligence and grace. They are not the type to interrupt each other and finish each other's sentences, theirs is a dance of conversation, which is far more refined. They listen intensely to each other and quietly add on when the other leaves off. By the time Wallace, referred to as his high school friends as "the hot dog prince" because of his job at a hot dog stand on the OOB pier, and Jane finally went out on a high school date, their romance had been evolving from a friendship for years. The pair had grown up together and their eighth grade teacher, Agnes Cunningham claims to have seen in their early flirtations a hint of the life they built together. Their partnership was a powerful thread connecting carefree dances on the pier, the attack on Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, the birth of their 4 children and 9 grandchildren, 22 moves, the burning of the church they had always attended and countless other wars and joyous moments which have marked their friendship over the past 60 plus years.

Jane grew up on the Ferry Road. Her father, W. Lloyd Walker, was a trustee at Thornton Academy as she is now, and all her family went to the same Saco schools. Her uncle, Arthur Walker who celebrated his hundredth birthday in 2001 claimed at Thornton festivities celebrating "a hundred years of football at TA" to have been the fastest running back in Thornton history. "Who knows if it was true," Jane says remembering his boasting with a chuckle. Since he was the only one living from the class of 1919, there was no one to dispute his claim.

Jane's mother Marion Walker worried that her daughter crowded with her friends on to the tip of the pier in Old Orchard beach dancing to Big band greats such as Glen Miller and Benny Goodman, might rock the pier so much it would fall into the ocean, but she generally trusted that Jane was safe. When the teenagers weren't out dancing, they were crowded around the radio listening to the top ten songs on the Hit Parade.

Saco was a comfortable place to grow up in those early years. The population of the town was about 8,000. According to the Nuttings, everyone seemed to know and support each other. There were only about 300 students at Thornton when Jane and Wallace attended in the mid forties. Despite the clutches of the depression which were evident is Saco in the 1930s, their early years of high school were good ones. "Values and a sense of morality were clear", remembers Wallace, who thinks decisions are far more murky and challenging in some ways for their grandchildren. This small town sense of safety was jarred with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. "I remember waking up expecting to see the German Army walking up on the Saco Beaches," says Jane remembering her first brush with war. While finishing high school, her beau trained with the Maine State Guard in the woods of N. Saco and learned how to protect local beaches against invasion, a threat which at the time seemed a grim possibility.

The legendary rivalry between Biddeford and Saco was a positive motivator, a friendly competition which provided a good healthy distraction from the war. This was perhaps most evident on Thanksgiving mornings when the two football teams competed in a special holiday game before returning home to eat hearty turkey dinners. In November of 1942, folks awoke to deep snow in both towns. There was however no doubt that the much looked forward to game would go on. The field and much of the turf beneath it was plowed and the teams met with an especially heightened sense of competition. Nutting smiles warmly remembering the cold morning, but also remembers that every time his team fell, "we lost meat off hands and limbs."

Following graduation in 1946, Wallace who got accepted at both Harvard and West Point, chose the path of a soldier and never looked back. Jane decided to attend Middlebury College. They were married in their hometown church in Saco after Wallace graduated from West Point in 1950.The Nuttings had their first bitter taste of the separation two months later when Wallace set off for Korea. Jane returned to Middlebury to graduate in 1951.This assignment was the first of 35 years of active duty on four continents. He was gone three times in their marriage for over a year and was frequently away on field exercises for three or more weeks at a time. Jane survived his absences by absorbing herself in her children and by keeping life as normal as possible despite the many moves. Jane has a great deal of sympathy for single mothers, because she often had a taste of what it was like to raise a family alone. She is quick to add though that she never felt totally alone because she always knew her husband was coming back. She also stayed connected to family and friends in her home town Saco, and believes this helped to keep her centered as they moved around the globe.

Most times it seemed the Nuttings had made the right choice. Wallace rose quickly as an esteemed leader and served in Korea, Europe, Vietnam and Latin America as well as twelve positions across the US over the years. Jane was proud and also established herself in each of the communities where they lived as a resource and source of support to other soldiers and their families. Saco was always a home base, a place they could return to visit families and friends when the needed to refuel. Not everyone however treated the General and his family with respect. During Vietnam, when Jane returned with her children to Saco to visit the kids grandparents, they felt quite a bit of animosity which surprised them in their home town. On one occasion, Jane was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the mailman who she hoped would deliver a collection of precious letters wrapped in a rubber band. They often were delayed, making them especially valued when they made in across the sea and finally to Maine. When the mail finally arrived, however, the scene was not nearly as sweet as she had anticipated. The mailman arrived furious and disdainful on her porch and threw the war worn letters at her shouting, "If your husband would refuse to go there, we wouldn't be in such a mess." Times like these wore at Jane's ample reserves of good nature, but her pride in her husband was never at risk. She only worried that the negative responses to their father's work would be hard on her kids who admired him so much that such attacks cut them to the core.

Nutting achieved the highest rank as a four star general, was the first officer to lead two unified commands, earned 24 United States and 9 foreign ribbons of honor and spent his ten years after retiring training new Generals and Admirals. After all their adventures, they chose to return home to Saco. Wallace wears these accomplishments with pride and despite civilian clothes, carries his 6' 2 body with the bearing of a soldier. Saco folks are quick to comment that although the Nutting's have seen the world and despite the fact that Wally's picture hangs opposite a portrait of Joshua Camberlin at the Saco City Hall, and even though he carried the Olympic torch through New Hampshire and Jane is an esteemed Thornton Academy trustee, they are as easy to talk to and down to earth as any people you will meet. They are active members of their church, have helped to establish a senior college at USM, and play an active role in the growth and direction of Thornton Academy.

They currently live in Biddeford Pool, but their heart is still with "the town across the river" a place which has always been their home though all their travels. Jane believes what sets Saco apart is from other towns is a sense of pride. "Most people are glad they live here. An awful lot of people leave, but many come back as we did. We saw a lot of the world, but never had any doubt we would return here." Wallace agrees, "The people here are not greatly different than they were 50-60 years ago. Good solidly based people with a good sense of humor." After a life of accomplishments, a list which is still growing albeit more quietly in their retirement, they agree that one of the best things they have ever done is to return to their roots.

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