Hampton Bays School District Honors Local Veteran

The Hampton Bays School District continues honoring a local veteran each month of the school year by paying tribute to Tom Curtis by flying an American Flag in his honor throughout the month of April.

“The Hampton Bays School district is proud to honor Mr. Curtis for his service to the United States during World War II,” Lars Clemensen, Superintendent of Schools said..

The American flag was raised during a ceremony held at the Hampton Bays Elementary School last Friday.

During the event, students sang, read Curtis’ biography and presented artwork in his honor.

Born in Michigan in 1922, Curtis graduated high school in 1940 and worked locally until he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard as the war escalated in 1942.

He was sent to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for boot camp on Lake Superior and then to Duluth, Minnesota as an armed guard to protect the local shipyards and various lake steamers.

In 1943, he applied and was accepted to radio school in New Jersey where he graduated 16th out of a class of 122 students.

He was soon assigned as a radio operator at a Coast Guard Station in Michigan, but was reassigned after he volunteered for advanced radio tracking training.

After he was trained to use radio signals to track German submarine movements, he was ordered to serve in Virgina as a radio operator for Air-Sea rescue missions.

At that time, he was assigned to a Navy troop transport ship headed to Marseille, France where they picked up 6,000 troops and sailed them to the Philippines, as the war in the Pacific was still going on.

Curtis, who also played piano in the Coast Guard orchestra, was honorably discharged from the Coast Guard on Oct. 20, 1945.

He began making a living as a piano player working in several bands until he decided to school to obtain his government radio operators license.

In 1948, Curtis was hired by TWA and worked as a flight radio operator, flying all over the world, until 1957.

In 1962, Curtis moved to Southampton and worked as a radio operator for “Macky,” a company that later became ITT World Com until his retirement in 1984.

Also during that time, he worked part-time as a piano player, playing at Gurney’s Inn in Montauk and Booby Van’s in Bridgehampton.

He also worked with a band, called Moonlighters.

Curtis, who has lived in Hampton Bays since 1973, married his wife, Rosalie in 1983 and together they have a combined eight children.

Photo courtesy of the Hampton Bays School District

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