Serving the Nation Through Aviation

By Jessie Asay

John Francis Curry

April 22, 1886 - March 4, 1973

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John Curry in 1945 [28]

John Francis Curry was born in New York in 1886 to James Francis Curry and Mary Gertrude Mackinnin.[1] His grandfather had immigrated from Ireland in 1845, making his father a first-generation American citizen.[2] James and Mary married in 1885 and had John shortly after.[3] He became an older brother in 1890 when his sister Isabel Frances was born.[4] John graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, with a Bachelor of Science degree, and was commissioned a second lieutenant of Infantry on February 14, 1908.[5] In 1910, he began instructing at his alma mater and taught there from 1910-1914.[6]

John knew that his military career would “take off” after his enrollment in the Signal Corps Aviation School. First appropriated in 1911, the Aviation School was developed to test different types of airplanes and discern their potential military capabilities. In addition to teaching members how to fly, the school also instructed aerial photography, cross country flight, flying at night, aerial gunnery, and bombsight.[7] He took his first flight on September 20, 1915.[8] John first began learning to fly at Coronado Island while stationed at North Island Rockwell Field, from September, 1915 to May, 1916.[9] Upon his completion of aviation school, he went on an expedition to Mexico under the command of General John J. Pershing. The expedition was launched in retaliation for Mexican revolutionary Francisco Villa's attack on the town of Columbus, New Mexico. The invasion became one of the most remembered events of the Mexican Border War.[10] John was placed into the 1st Aero Squadron, the first aviation unit to participate in military action.[11] While the Mexican invasion at large proved unsuccessful, the 1st Aero Squadron flew 346 hours on 540 flights and covered more than 19,300 miles, performing aerial reconnaissance and photography, and transporting mail and official dispatches.[12] It was after this event that the military realized the airplane could be a vastly important military tool.

This was just the beginning of John’s lengthy military career, as he was later ordered to Hawaii to command the 6th Aero Squadron and to select a site for the field for Aviation Sea Coast Defense.[13] He selected and arranged the purchase by the Army of Ford Island, Pearl Harbor. Once wartime preparations had begun, John was sent to France in the Summer of 1918, near the end of the war.[14] John was selected as the Chief of Staff of the Air Service, Second Army. It was during this part of his service that a 135th Aero Squadron plane he was flying on was shot down by enemy fire; however, he and his pilot escaped capture and safely made their way to the Allied trenches.[15] On a separate flight, this one on November 3, 1918, his plane assisted in the destruction of a German observation balloon.[16]

3G7 Orville Wright, Maj. John F. Curry, and Col. Charles Lindbergh
Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, June 22, 1927. [28]

Following World War I, John briefly moved back to Hawaii and, from 1920 through 1923, worked as a Department Air Officer.[17] It was during this time that he married Eleanor Dorothy Montgomery on January 4, 1921.[18] His military career continued, and he completed further education in 1924, at the Air Corps Engineering School in McCook Field, Ohio, in 1928, at the Air Corps Tactical School in Langley Field, Va. in 1929, at the Command and General Staff School in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and 1936 at Army War College in Washington, D.C.[19] In 1941 special interests on behalf of civilian pilots led to the creation of the Civil Air Patrol. John was selected as its first national commander, becoming the nation’s only acting general of a civilian army, serving from December 1941 to March 1942.  He helped mobilize 100,000 private pilots for non-combatant service, thus freeing military pilots for wartime duty. John was a champion for equal opportunity flying in the Civil Air Patrol, and was quoted as saying “There must be no doubt in the minds of our gallant women fliers that they are needed and, in my opinion, indispensable to the full success of the Civil Air Patrol organization.”[20] In November 1944, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.[21] The Civil Air Patrol perhaps reflects John’s greatest military achievement, as his leadership and organization helped to establish a long legacy of safe flying and honorable service.

World War I Combat Pilots Reunion
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 1961 [28]

John retired from the Armed Forces on November 1, 1945, after 41 years of dedicated service, 30 of which were in aviation.[22] He achieved the rank of Major General.[23] He received many awards throughout his service, including USAF Command Pilot wings, the Legion of Merit, the Mexican Service Medal, the World War I Victory Medal, the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one service star, the World War II Victory Medal, the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor (France), an Officer of the Ordre de l'Étoile Noire (France).[24] During retirement, he was very active in the Denver community, as the director of Aviation Colorado in 1946, director of Aviation Denver in 1947, and chair of the Red Rocks Music Festival beginning in 1947 and ending in 1949. Beyond aviation, John also held leadership positions in the Denver chapter of the Red Cross and the Denver Area Council Boy Scouts. Major General John F. Curry died in Fitzsimmons General Hospital in Denver on March 3, 1973, a few weeks before he would have been 87 years old.[25] He was survived by his wife Eleanor, two daughters Joan and Sheila, and two grandchildren, Duane C. and Becky DeKalb.[26] His memory is sustained by the General J. F. Curry Achievement, awarded for successful completion of the specific requirements of Achievement 1 in Phase I of the cadet program of the Civil Air Patrol.[27]

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Footnotes ↓

[1] New York City Department of Records & Information Services, New York City, New York; New York City Birth Certificates, Borough: Manhattan, Year: 1886.

[2] Ancestry.com, “1900 United States Federal Census” (Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004), https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/familytree/person/tree/61662648/person/46073971499/facts.

[3] Ancestry.com, “1900 United States Federal Census” (Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004), https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/familytree/person/tree/61662648/person/46073971499/facts.

[4] William Bjornstad, “MG John Francis Curry (1886-1973) - Find A Grave,” Find a Grave, April 22, 2009, accessed September 6, 2020, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/36200223.

[5] “Major General John Francis Curry,” Biography Display (U.S. Air Force), accessed August 7, 2020, https://www.af.mil/AboutUs/Biographies/Display/Article/2286532/major-general-john-francis-curry/.

[6] “Major General John F. Curry,” U.S. Air Force Biographies, accessed August 6, 2020, https://archive.is/20120718220714/http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp.

[7] “Army Signal Corps Aviation School: MNCPPC, MD,” Army Signal Corps Aviation School | MNCPPC, MD, accessed August 15, 2020, http://www.pgparks.com/1600/Army-Signal-Corps-Aviation-School.

[8] “Major General John F. Curry,” U.S. Air Force Biographies.

[9] Smithsonia, “Rediscovering Maj. Gen. John F. Curry - Page 13,” CAP Talk, July 21, 2008, accessed September 6, 2020, http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=5582.240.

[10] Mitchell Yockelson, “The United States Armed Forces and the Mexican Punitive Expedition: Part 1,” National Archives and Records Administration (National Archives and Records Administration, 1997), accessed September 6, 2020, https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/fall/mexican-punitive-expedition-1.html.

[11] Nancy Welz Aldrich, “The 1st Aero Squadron – A History,” First Aero Squadron Foundation ™, July 28, 2014, accessed September 6, 2020, https://firstaerosquadron.com/articles/the-1st-aero-squadron-a-history/.

[12] Ibid.

[13]“Major General John F. Curry,” U.S. Air Force Biographies.

[14] Maurer Maurer, “Lt. Col. John F. Curry,” in The U.S. Air Service in World War I. Volume IV. Postwar Review (Ft. Belvoir: Defense Technical Information Center, 1979), 105-108.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17]Ralph S. Cooper, “John F. Curry 1886-1973,” The Early Birds of Aviation, 1974, accessed September 6, 2020, https://www.earlyaviators.com/ecurry.htm.

[18] Ibid.

[19] “Major General John F. Curry,” U.S. Air Force Biographies.

[20] Smithsonia, “Rediscovering Maj. Gen. John F. Curry.”

[21] “Major General John Francis Curry,” Biography Display.

[22] “Major General John F. Curry,” U.S. Air Force Biographies.

[23] “Major General John Francis Curry,” Biography Display.

[24] Ibid.

[25] Cooper, “JOHN F. CURRY 1886-1973.”

[26] Ibid.

[27] “Special Cadet Program Awards,” Civil Air Patrol National Headquarters, accessed August 7, 2020, https://www.gocivilairpatrol.com/programs/cadets/stripes-to-diamonds/special-cadet-program-awards.

[28] Cooper, Ralph S. “JOHN F. CURRY 1886-1973.” THE EARLY BIRDS OF AVIATION, 1974. https://www.earlyaviators.com/ecurry.htm.

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