Frank Curley USAAF In Memoriam

Frank Curley MIA and His B-24
B-24 Liberator 1st Lt. Frank CurleyB-24L Liberator Serial Number 44-41465
7th AF, 11th BG, 26th BS
Abstract: Who was Frank Joseph Curley and what happened on 10 February 1945 on his 4oth mission (last one) over Ha Ha Jima that meant that I would never know him? This is the story of my 35-year search to find answers to that question. I hope it helps others who are looking for ways to find out about a loved one who has been catagorized by the U.S. Government as Missing in Action (MIA).(Frank Curley headshot photo: First Lieutenant Frank Joseph Curley, Army-Air Forces Navigation School, Selman Field, Monroe, Louisiana, graduation photo (courtesy of Tony Bartoletti "44-01").

Note: My thanks to the 11th Bomb Group Association for contacts that helped me to create this memoriam (Phil Gudenschwager - Secretary, 4116 N 66th Place, Scottsdale, AZ 85251, 11bga@cox.net, 480 945 9119).

For quick results on an MIA search, check out the American Battle Field Monuments Commission Here is the result when I entered Frank Curley in the search engine.

AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION
Frank J. Curley, First Lieutenant,U. S. Army Air Forces Service # 0-707235, 26th BomberSquadron, 11th Bomber Group, Heavy Entered the Service from: PennsylvaniaDied: 10-Feb-45Missing in Action or Buried at Sea Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii

Had I had these simple date points (Service number, bomber group, date of death, etc.) when I began my research 35 years ago, all the false starts would not have happened. I encourage you if you are looking for an MIA to use this incredible, if unknown, resource. My thanks to

Michael A. Norbury, Jr, Engineering/Chief Information Officer, American Battle Monuments Commission, norburym@abmc.gov who told me about this resource. He is the husband of the woman who provided child care for my younger son, Eamon. I met him at a picnic for the parents. Once again, serendipity...as here... is so much a part of the search for information on a MIA. Expect many blind leads...and occasional blinding light discoveries and breakthroughs when you search for an MIA loved one.

(Photo of Frank Curley in his USAAF uniform: Courtesy of Agnes Curley [There were two brothers, Harry and Billy, who left the farm in Perkisie, PA to work for the Reading Railroad. Billy settled in Landsdale, PA and had 11 children. She is from that family. Harry settled in Mount Airy, PA and had 9 children. Francis "Frank" Curley is his son.] She is an 88-year old who showed up

at my sister Sue's house. She said, "Are you the Curley who has the brother doing a Web page on Francis Curley?" Sue said, "Yes." Agnes reached into her pocketbook and said, "I've been keeping these for 65 years. He should have these." Agnes handed Sue the picture you see here of Frank in his USAAF uniform as well as the obiturary below. Serendipity.)

Childhood Memories: I heard the name Frank Curley, older brother of my father Harry Leo Curley, only rarely and briefly as a child. Usually, there was a reference to the fact that he died in the Pacific in a plane, that he was an MIA and that my grandmother, Margaret D'Arcy Curley never recovered from the loss. When I tried to get more information on him from my mother and father, I got vague references to the Pacific War and that, again, he was Miss

ing in Action (MIA). That was it.

Breakthrough: Frank's MACR (Missing Air Crew Report) Some 28 years later, after much research, I would obtain his MARC that stated that he was a navigator/bombadier with the 7th Air Force (AF), 11th Bomber Group (BG), 26th Bomber Squadron (BS) in 1944 and 1945 in the Pacific. By talking to the pilot (Harry Gibbons) who was behind Frank when his plane was hit, I got details of that mission. By talking to Richard Chandler, the sole survivor of the crew with Frank that day, I was able to get a photo of Frank's crew (as well as Richard Chandler's own incredible survival and rescue story).

According to the MACR, members of this crew flew missions over Iowo Jima, Truk, Marcus, ChiChi Jima, Ha Ha Jima, and Wake and many other pacific islands.
The Fatal 10 February 1945 Ha Ha Jima Mission
According to the sole survivor of the Ha Ha Jima mission, Richard Chandler, Frank and his crew were shot down bombing a Japanese airfield on HaHa Jima so the Marines and Navy would have an easier time invading Iowa Jima. Here is a photo Mr. Chandler sent of the Braesher crew, of which he and Frank were members. He also told me that Frank came running to the plane before he left that day because he was assigned to it at the last minute. Such is war.United St

ates Army Air Forces (USAAF) First Lieutenant Frank Curley's B-24L Liberator (Serial Number 44-41465) and crew sometime before the 10 February 1945 mission to Ha Ha Jima

in the Pacific Theatre. Not shown is Major Robert W. Holland (0350 194) who joined them for that mission as a passenger.

Crew (Left to Right - Top Row): Pilot - lst Lt Edwin E. Brashear (0758 298), Co-Pilot - 2nd lt Theodore Robinson (0765 320), Bombadeir- lst lt Albert C. Reynolds (0762 869), Naviga

tor - 1st Lt. Frank Curley (SN 0-707 235)Crew (Left to Right - Bottom Row): Radio - T Sgt Vincent Foti (12 134 909), Engineer - T. Sgt William F. Caldwell (11 094 945), Gunner - S Sgt John J. Kerexki (6 996 217), Asst Engr - S Sgt James T. McGee (37 505 526)

As today, crews were mixed and matched according to available members and the mission. In

the photo above, Cecil K Decker and Robert M. Stites are to the right in the place of John Kerexki. This was Frank's 34th (Chandler) or 39th (Gibbons) mission, or some other number. I have not been able to get a definitive(government record) number.

Breakthrough: Harry Gibbon's 1999 Letter and Diary
Harry Gibbon's to me was a real break though that answered a number of questions about wh

at happened. He was the pilot directly behind Frank's plane that day. Harry, who was flying in the plane behind Frank's when it was hit and exploded, was kind enough to send me a hand-written, four-page letter in March of 1999 that gave great detail about the mission and Frank. Here it is.

Bruce,
There is so much to be said about any war.

Historians say 60,000,000 people died in WWII, about 250,000 Americans. We were relatively lucky. But try to tell that to the parents of the deceased, including my parents who lost a Lt. navigator over Germany.
As to Lt. Frank Curley, I knew him and I remember him. This part is strange because after 54 years you remember so few of your fellow flyer's.
I was a 21 year old pilot flying in the right seat for the McCullam Crew. We were together with the Brasher and Bienwith Crew. There were older crews ahead of us and younger crews behind, but we always seemed to be together. We flew sub search out of Oahu. We moved up to

Kwajalein and bombed Watje, Truk, etc.

[This February 1944 photo of a USAAFairfield in Kwajalein shows the kind of small island air bases Frank Curley and Harry Gibbons lived in and flew out of in the Pacific Theatre, and a close-up of a B-24 Bomber]

We moved up to Guam in th 26th squadron, 11th bomb group. We flew 9, 10, 11 plane raids. Brasher was generally the lead plane. He was good.
We bombed Iow Jima on February 8, 1945. A Jap kamikaze fighter rammed Bienbwith's plane and created an instant ball of flame. No one could have possibly gotten out.
The reason I tell you this is because Major Holland enters the picture. He was considered a very popular officer when he flew. He was returning to Guam from his rest leave after flying 30 missions. He did not impress the war weary young kids who had seen tougher action that he ever saw. He seemed arrogant and autocratic, i.e. I'll show you guys how we did it in the old days.He took over. He set up a mission for the 10th, two days after Bienwith went down. Major

Holland (I always felt he had been promoted to Lt.Colonel about that time) then set up what we called a milk run, an easy mission where there would be no fighters and light ack-ack, certainly not Iwo 9 days before the invasion.
Holland picked Ha-Ha Jima, a couple hundred miles north

of Iwo. Therefore, we needed monstrous rubber tanks for gasoline carried in the bomb bays. If he were Laurel an d Hardy he couldn't have fouled up the mission any worse. We flew from

the West about 15,60 0 feet up. We had a tail wind. We always flew at 165 MPH indicated. However, at that altitude with a strong wind we were probably doing close to 400 MPH.Holland, flying the ship, turned off the target for reasons unknown. He did a shallow 180 degree turn. He h ad to with other planes in the formation. He turned and approached the target from the other direction. W e are now flying up wind and probably doing 160 MPH.After flying in view of the island for possibly 5 minutes the Japs had good time to figure our altitude. It was when we released our bombes that his plane took a direct hit in the bomb bays...remember the gas-filled auxiliary tanks?

It was an inferno. Brasher's plane turned out of control and headed back into the formation. The distance it seemed two or three flyers got out (the ail gunner was rescued). The others had to be the waist window gunners. No one could have gotten out of the cabin.

What a tragedy! Here was a crew that had shown enough leadership to be the lead crew and then have the ship taken over by an... "I'll show you guys how to fly combat"

kind of guy. It's sick.

[I got the photo of Frank's B-24 going down in the Pacific from his Missing Air Crew Report (MACR 12052 - 10 Feb 1945).]

As to Frank himself, we were a reasonably close squadron. We lived in 16

x 16 pyramidal tents, dirt floors, outdoor latrines, 50 gallon overhead tanks for showers, indigestible food, warm beer (2 cans per day, perhaps).

We played softball together, but I don't ever remember him drinking with us or playing poker with us. There were about 12 crews in our squadron, some coming, some dong. We lived in a circular area, that is, the tents were in a circle.Frank was of good height, well conditioned and extremely good looking. I remember that he had gone to LaSalle College High School about the class of 1942. I went to North Cat

holic, class of 1940. Later I graduated from LaSalle College, class of 1948.Enclosed is a map of the area to give you an idea of the war that "we" had, but it was going on all over the world.
Harry J. Gibbons
Co-pilot of the 11th BG3/15/1999

Against orders (in case he was shot down and captured), Harry kept a diary. He sent me the two pages concerning this

mission that he wrote on the 3' x 5" homework pad that every parochial chool child keeps. Here is his introduction to me and the diary entry for this mission--Dangerous Critter.

"Bruce...From my diary that I kept and recorded on the flight back home from every target. It was against all rules to keep such a diary, just in case that you were captured by the Japs. But you know us wild Irishmen. Tell us not to do something and..." Harry 3/16/99

DANGEROUS CRITTER
HA HA JIMAnt>NO. #35

Another rough one. I feel a little uneasy. No appetite. Stomach upset a little. We were supposed ot have an easy mission to-day, but the lead ship (A-1) picked up some ACK-ACK in the bomb bay tank and caught fire right after bombs away. It was just a flying torch. A few fellows got out but some of them didn't have chutes on.

That's two ships in two missions...not so good. Had some very good friends on it, too...a 10 plane formation hit HA HA at 15,600...bomb hits (unreadable). I sweated this mission out but bad, and then to see that plane peel off in front of us aflamesure put the finishing touches to it. I sometimes wonder if we'll ever get home. These extra missions

are sure rough. Last crew

was on No. 34. We lead B flight again.

(Obituary from the Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia, Frid

ay, February 22, 1946 co

urtesy ofAgnes Curley, Landsdale, PA.)

(Photo: Frank Curley, LaSalle College High School, Philadelphia, PA, 1942. Photo

courtesy of Christopher M. Carabello '82 Director of Communications and Public Relations La Salle College High School 8605 Cheltenham Avenue Wyndmoor, PA 19038 (215) 402-4810 direct (215) 836-4502 fax, carabello@lschs.org, carabello@lschs.org, www.lschs.org

Franks 1942 transcript courtesy of LaSalle College High School Registrar Suzanne Russo.

In an email she said, "My father is a veteran of World War II, so I found your web site very poignant and relevant. He spent the war as a radio man in the Army Air Corps and

participated in the D-Day invasion, went through Italy, Africa, and France. He was fortunate to survive and return home unharmed."

Screaming Like a Banshee

My wife screams like a bansheeWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
to cover wailing with neutral sound
when my toddler Eamon fights her
and refuses to take a nap.
I hear Grandmom Curley screamed
like a banshee when the telegram arrived
from the War Department in 1945
to tell her the oldest, Frank, the one
who was supposed to be the Jesuit,
instead had been killed in action
when the Japanese ack-ack
turned his B-24 into a fireball
on his 39th mission over Haha Jima
>in an ocean grave in the South Pacific.

Grandmom Curley screamed
like a banshee for weeks
until they hooked her up
and shot electricity through her brain
to cover wailing with neutral sound.She never screamed like a banshee again.
Instead, she wailed so deep down for 20 yearsbecause the hole in her heart was so vastlaughter was no longer a planet in her galaxy
and the only way people would describe her was,"She was never the same after Frank died in the Pacific."

How to...and How Not To...Find Out About Your Family MIA

Here is the chronology of my search for Frank's story. I offer it in hopes it may help another American MIA family to find out about what happened to their loved one. There were many dead ends, false leads, and rude and lazy bureaucrats over the years, but there were also some extremely helpful veterans and verterans associations.

My main suggestion would be for the U.S. government to declassify these missions while living family members can discover what happened to their loved ones. In Frank's case, they kept the mission classified far longer than it needed to be. As anyone who has an MIA in their family knows, the U.S. Government is not a great deal of help (although it has gotten better due to the diligence of the Vietnam-era MIA families). I recommend private researchers, like Aviation Archives, to really find out the truth.
(The 1945 Bombers Chapel programs and the nose art below courtesy of Mr. Donald MacLaine who lived in the tent next to Frank's on Guam.)

(Photo: My father, Harry Leo Curley, at Cape May, NJ around the time of Frank's death. Margaret D'Arcy Curley would put the government check for Frank in the basket at Holy Child parish each Sunday and the priest would bring it back to her on Monday. This went on for 2 years until she bought the house in Cape May.)

After three decades of research, I have half-solved the mystery (why Major Holland was there that day and got them all killed is the unsolved half) of what happened to First Lieutenant Frank Curley on 10 February 1945 at Ha Ha Jima. Many helped me in this search. Special thanks to all (and especially Richard Chandler, Harry Gibbons, Richard Mansfield, Jack Lopez, and the woman from Selman Field) who helped me solve the mystery of this mission. Here are a few suggestions for what was helpful and what was not in this search.
1955- 1977 - Once in a great while I would hear a vague reference to Frank, that he died in the Pacific, and that he won some medals but not what those medals meant or what for. I heard that my grandmother Margaret D'Arcy Curley was a beauty with jet-black

hair that Frank also had, and that she was a happy woman before but "she was never the same after Frank died in the Pacific." To the day she died, she never accepted that he was an MIA and instead believed that he was captured by the Russian's and ended up in the Gulag.

When I asked at one point if there were any pictures of Frank, I remember being told that his mother had destroyed them all after he died because they were too painful for her to see. As a child, for a few weeks each summer, I stayed at a huge Victorian mansion in Cape May, New Jersey...back when it was affordable. It was told that it was purchased with the survivor's check the government sent after Frank died, that Grandmom Curley used to put it in the collection basket every Sunday for two years and the priest would return it each Monday until they bought the Cape May Victorian to rent out.

As with so much of our military and other history, this was relayed to me by a woman, my mother, Phyllis Mary Watson Curley. My father never really talked about Frank, his older brother by two years. It was just too painful.
1977 - After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, I took a job in Washington, D.C. Curious about Frank's mission, I went to the National Archives and looked in the military records and talked to staff at the National Archives. I found nothing, but continued off and on for 20 years on a free Saturday.

1999 - Breakthrough - After entering "B-24" in a search engine, I find the Selman Field Memorial website. A very kind woman there put me in touch with Richard Mansfield 44-10, VP, SFHA. Then, while surfing the Web under USAAF and B-24 and MIA I find Aviation Archives, a research firm that specializes in cutting through the red tape of the U.S. government. I research their website, discover it is only $35.00 for them to get Frank's MARC, and send the check. Two weeks later, Frank's Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) arrives with the declassified file and intelligence, details of the mission, including the photo of his plane going down. I encourage anyone who has an MIA to contact Jack Lopez of Aviation Archives.
Aviation Archives
12624 Orchard Brook Terrace
Potomac, MD 20854-2326
Telephone: (240) 432-0038
E-mail: aviationarchive@comcast.net
Contact Person: Jack R. Lopez

2000 - Harry Gibbons contact initiated (courtesy of Richard Mansfield 44-10, VP, SFHA) - by phone, he reveals the mission verbally and follows up with a four-page, hand written letter (above). He told me that he went to a reuinion at the Punch Bowl in Hawaii and overheard Major Holland's widow bragging about the Major's accomplishments. He said it was all he could do to bite his tongue and not ask her if the major's accomplishments included getting all those good, young flyer's killed over Ha Ha Jima on 10 February 1945 due to his fatal incompetence.

2005 - A contact of a contact of a contact puts me in

touch with Phil Gudenschwager, 11th Bomber Group A

ssociation Secreta

ry, Treasurer, and Historian. He encourages me to call Richard Chandler.
In December, after six years of waiting (tip: call any good contact like this that you find from whatever source and don't wait as I did), I finally got the courage to call the sole survivor of the flight, Richard Chandler . He was gracious and kind and sent me the "DUMBO" article. He relayed to me over the phone that had had been rescued under Japanese fire as dolphins tried to push his dinghy towarad the shore fire. Richard Chandler's full story is on my blog here.

He also sent a Christmas card, letter and crew photo at the top of this blog. I immediately sent it to my seven brothers and sisters as a Christmas present.

2009 - Bill Tarczy was kind enough to write this letter about the same events that day from a different view.

James Bradley's Flyboys

The poem by Irish poet W.B. Yeats, An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, has always reminded me of Frank's mission. I post it below.

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;

Those that I fight I do not hate,

Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,font>
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.

Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;

I balanced all, brought all to mind,

The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind

In balance with this life, this death.

Note: One Damned Island After Another: The Saga of the Seventh by Clive Howard and Joe Whitley is a very clearly written account about the USAAF 7th from Pearl Harbor to the end of WWII. The realistic illustrations and photos alone are worth the read.

The Next Generation...and the next...

My brothers and I are the next generation...and we are the fathers of the next generation after us. All of us have children. What does such sacrifice mean if it is not conveyed to the next generation who then conveys it to the next?

For Christmas, I just received this drawing "Flying Glory" from my 9-year old Eamon. You will notice that in the drawing...one plane is going down...but another is completing the mission. The story continues...




The Distinguished Flying Cross
For his service in the Pacific with the USAAf in the 26th Bomber Squadron, 11th Bomber Groupin WWII, Frank Curley was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross Society, an air Medal with 5 Oak Leaf Clusters, and a Purple Heart.

The Distinguished Flying Cross medal is awarded to any officer or enlisted man or woman of the Armed Forces of the United States who shall have distinguished himself in actual combat in support of operations by "heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight, subsequent to November 11, 1918."

The decoration may also be given for an act performed prior to November 11, 1918, when the individual has been recommended for, but has not received the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross, or Distinguished Service Medal.

The Distinguished Flying Cross, authorized by an Act of Congress of July 2, 1926 (amended by Executive Order 7786 on January 8, 1938), was awarded first to Captain Charles A. Lindbergh, of the U.S. Army Corps Reserve, for his solo flight of 3600 miles across the Atlantic in 1927, a feat which electrified the world and made "Lindy" one of America's most popular heroes.

The first D.F.C. to be awarded to a Navy man was to Commander Richard E. Byrd, of the U.S. Navy Air Corps, on May 9, 1926, for his exciting flight to and from the North Pole. Both these famous aviators also received the Medal of Honor with the Distinguished Flying Cross. The Aviatrix Amelia Earhart also received the Distinguished Flying Cross. Hers was the only such award, as an executive order on March 1, 1927, ruled that D.F.C. should not be conferred on civilians.

For more information on the Distinguished Flying Cross, contact: DFCS/Editor/4442 Vandever Avenue/San Diego, CA 92120

Update: On August 11, 2008 I gathered at Arlington with my cousins to bury their father, one of Frank's younger brothers, William "Bill" Curley. Bill served 27 years in Korea, Vietnam, Okinawa, England, Germany and other countries serving the American people in the U.S. Air Force. The tradition of selfless service, patriotism, and love of country continues...as Billy's sons continue to serve...