Jean Adams enlisted in the U.S Navy when she was 23 years old and went through basic training in Stillwater, Oklahoma. While she was there, the Coast Guard recruited its first class of SPARS, women in the Coast Guard. Since she didn’t care much for Oklahoma, Jean decided to accept the new assignment. After training as a Yeoman in Washington, D.C., and at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, she was sent to Salem, Massachusetts, as a Lieutenant J.G. There, she served as an operations officer and a pigeon officer.

Robert Nordstrom enlisted in Massachusetts and attended flight engineer training in California. He also was assigned to Salem, Massachusetts, where he entered the U.S Coast Guard as flight engineer. After serving in the Coast Guard for four years and keeping their relationship a secret, Jean Adams and Robert Nordstrom decided to get married. Today, after 58 years, they are still happily married with four daughters and eight grandchildren. They live in Meriden, Connecticut.

A Coast Guard Couple

It was a cold, moonless night when Jean Adams, operations officer, and Robert Nordstrom, flight engineer, were on the dogwatch shift. On this night shift, Bob passed through the parachute loft and operations office where Jean was on duty. It was love at first sight! The two were not permitted to see each other because of the strict Coast Guard regulations stating that officers and enlisted men could not date or be seen socializing in public. But these rules could not keep the two apart. In secret, with only their best friends knowing, they agreed to meet each other.

One warm August evening, the summer after Jean and Bob met, all of the enlistees including Bob were enjoying a lobster bake on the beach, while Jean and her fellow officers were stuck inside on duty. Curious about what was going on at the beach, Jean’s friend and her fellow officer told her to go check it out. Walking down to the beach, while her friend covered for her in the office, she was picked up by two men, who jokingly threw her into the water, uniform and all. Bob, not wanting to make it obvious that they were dating, told the men knock it off, with a joking tone in his voice. After exchanging smiles with Bob, she headed back to the office, dripping wet.

Other times, Bob and Jean, wanting to be together as all young couples do, would plan a movie date; but they would have to arrive at the nearby Lynn Movie Theater at different times so as not to be seen together. They weren’t really conscious of what the consequences would be if they were caught, and they were not going to let the regulations keep them apart.

Bob’s duty in the Search and Rescue Squad sent him all over the surrounding area, including off the coast of Greenland. The men in the Search and Rescue Squad were sent flying through the air in PBY pontoon planes. They rescued men off boats and landed in greater than 30 foot swells, so Bob was used to danger. Jean, on the other hand, was settled in an office, receiving messages and radioing up to Bob and the rest of the crew in the planes. Her biggest fear was that someone of higher authority would find out about her illicit relationship with an enlisted man.

Although both Bob and Jean had many choices after the war was over, they decided that their love was strong and they wanted to start a new life together. They got married on August 31, 1946, and according to Robert Nordstrom, “ She was my commanding officer in the Coast Guard, and she’s been in charge ever since.”