JAMES WILSON “BUD” NANCE, Jr.
REAR ADMIRAL, U.S. NAVY
WWII • KOREA • VIET-NAM

Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, January 1981 — January 1982.

James Wilson “Bud” Nance Jr., son of Colonel James W. Nance and Mary Elizabeth Monroe, was born in Monroe, North Carolina, where he and Jesse Helms grew up two blocks from each other. He attended what is now North Carolina State University and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1944. Nance also has a master’s degree in international relations from George Washington University.

During World War II, Nance was assigned to the battleship USS North Carolina. After the war, he completed flight training and served as a flight instructor at the Naval Air Basic Training Command of at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. He was assigned to exchange duty with the British Royal Navy in 1953 and when he returned to the US in 1955, he was project pilot with the Flight Test Division at the Naval Air Test Center (Patuxent River, MD).

Nance served as the senior naval officer on the staff of the commander of US forces in Europe when Alexander Haig held the combined job of US and NATO commander. He also held strategic and planning posts in the Pentagon and was commander of the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal.  He attained the rank of Rear Admiral on September 1, 1970. His final tour of duty in the Navy was as Assistant Vice-Chief of Naval Operations.

During the SALT II deliberations, Nance served as a consultant to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In 1981, he joined the White House as President Reagan’s deputy assistant for national security affairs, and for a brief time, he was acting chief special assistant for national security affairs, temporarily replacing Richard V. Allen.  In 1982 he served as director of the Private Sector Survey on Cost Control in the Federal Government.

After leaving the White House, Admiral Nance worked for Boeing Military Airplane Co., where he was manager of Navy systems. In 1991, Admiral Nance was asked by his childhood friend, Jesse Helms, to join the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as staff director to help improve the staff’s efficiency. He served in this position until his death on May 11, 1999. Admiral Nance died from complications of myelodysplasia, a preliminary form of leukemia at the age of 77.