Honored 1972
John Curry was born in New York City on April 4, 1896. He graduated from West Point in the class of 1908, and became one of the Army’s early aviators after he soloed in 1915. He joined the First Aero Squadron, where he participated in General Pershing’s expedition to Mexico in 1916. This was the first tactical use of fixed-wing aircraft in a U.S. military operation.
In 1917 he was assigned to Hawaii to command the 6th Aero Squadron and to select a site for a coastal defense airfield. Curry selected and arranged for the Army to purchase Ford Island in Pearl Harbor.
During the First World War, he served as a combat flyer in France, where he was credited with the destruction of a German observation balloon. Later, he was shot down flying a DH-4 biplane.
After the First World War he had numerous assignments, and in 1941 became the first National Commander of the newly established Civil Air Patrol (CAP). General Curry was instrumental in the success of the CAP which mobilized 100,000 private pilots for non-combatant service; flying logistics, maritime patrol, and search and rescue missions, thus freeing military pilots for wartime duty.
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