Thomas Marion Curtis

"Tom joined the Navy at 17, two months before Pearl Harbor, and spent 36 months of his four-year hitch on combat ships.  there was a searing memory etched in his mind about the Aaron Ward.  Tom was blown off his gunmount and when he came to 'the body of a dead Japanese pilot lay across his legs,' Jeanne (Curtis) said.  It was a nightmare he never forgot."  -- Lloyd Boles