CECIL "TYKE" CURTIS
By Drew Henley
Cecil Curtis, more commonly known as "Tyke," was working at the Boeing plant in Seattle, Washington when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He decided he wanted to fight for his country's freedom, and joined the service.
He told Boeing he was going to quit and they said, "Well, you can't. If you do, we will make you join the service."
Tyke replied, "That's where I'm headed, so see you later."
Tyke was going to go in the Navy, but when he got home from his last day at work he had a draft notice from the Air Force. This kind of shocked him, because he was not aware that they were drafting twenty-year olds. He packed up his things and took off for where the draft notice told him to go.
While he was waiting for a bus, a man reading a newspaper said to Tyke, "Do you know that they are drafting 20-year olds now?"
Tyke replied, "I sure do."
So off to Wichita Falls, Texas went Tyke where he would study Aircraft Mechanics. Then he went to Burbank, California for a special school. He was really more interested in being a fighter pilot or being on a B-24 than being a mechanic, but he was over six feet tall and they would not allow people over six feet to be on a plane. After his schooling, Tyke received notice that taller men were being allowed in aircrafts. So he reapplied and was accepted.
Then it was off to Utah to gun school and to learn how to fight. That was a difficult feat because the lowest 10% were automatically flunked out and had to try again. After graduation from gun school, Tyke headed off to Phase I in Tucson, Arizona. He was now a certified B-24 Flight Engineer. There were ten people on a plane: a pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, radioman, flight engineer, two waist gunners, a tail gunner, and a turret gunner, the last being Tyke's position.
For Phase II he headed to Springfield, Massachusetts, then he and his crew were off to New York to get their brand new airplane. Then they flew to Palm Beach, Florida for a final check of their equipment. It was there that they practiced flying their brand new airplane, but when they went to land it after testing it out, the front landing gear was destroyed and they had no plane. This is where Tyke and another man got separated from their squad. They received orders from a higher-ranking officer to meet them in Italy and get more orders from there. So the two of them took a bus from Palm Beach to Homestead, Florida where they took off with an ATC aircraft transporting a B-24 bomber. Their first stop was in Puerto Rico. Then they flew to former French West Africa.
Once in Italy, after trying to hitch-hike for a ride, they finally found an Englishman and asked where the base was. He gave them a ride to Naples, Italy. They stayed in Naples for a little while looking around and finding out what they needed to do. Then they went from Naples to Berry, then north to Cerignola where the base was located.
When they arrived they were given a mattress cover and were told to fill it with the straw over yonder and they were also given a tent. Italy was cold that time of year and they were too, so they had to invent some kind of heater to keep them warm. Tyke and his partner made a chimney from scratch and put some gas to fuel their heating device in a barrel outside the tent.
So it was that Tyke and his partner made it over to Italy where they would have to fly thirty-five missions to complete their duty in order to get discharged. Their problem: they didn't have a plane.
They asked another squad if they could borrow their plane for a couple of missions until they got their own, and the other squad agreed. So Tyke and the rest of his squad got in the plane and headed out for their first mission. They returned from the mission, but not without getting shot up pretty bad. The squad they had borrowed the plane from needed the plane back so they could fly their own mission. Tyke and his squad waited at camp. The other squad never returned, so he and his squadron were without a plane again.
Finally, they saw an old wrecked plane at the camp. It wasn't in too bad a shape, so they decided to fix it up and use it, and that's what they did. They flew all their missions with that recycled plane, which treated them well up until their last mission. They were out on a mission when they caught the corner of a very harsh storm. They were flying with three other planes, all of which turned back while Tyke and his squad kept on going. They had one engine out when they came out of the storm. They were over the Czech Republic so they flew low and tried not to let anybody know they were there. They then flew over some water and as they were approaching a little island they thought nothing about it.
Suddenly they were getting fired at! Their well-experienced pilot tipped the plane up on the wing that still had working engines and they escaped death. They got an amazing seven hundred and forty bullet holes in their plane that mission.
Tyke told me about how everyone on the plane wore parachutes because people were always falling out or getting shot at and things like that. Well, Tyke did not fit too well in those planes being over six feet tall, so a parachute would not fit on his back and still give him room to move around comfortably and freely. So, just in case he would need it, he would stand on it when he was fighting from the top turret position.
He said, "I would always glance down from time to time to make sure it was still under my feet."
Tyke is a remarkable person and contributed greatly to World War II. I'm very happy people like him are in our world, people who are proud of our country and people that will fight with everything they have to stick up for us. Tyke is amazing and I am happy I had the opportunity to interview him.
CECIL "TYKE" CURTIS
By Amanda Evans
Cecil A. Curtis, also known as Tyke, had the title of Flight Engineer during World War II. Tyke was working in Seattle at Boeing when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He wanted to leave to fight for his country so he told his boss he was going to quit.
His boss replied, "If you quit we will put you in the army."
Tyke told him that's what he was leaving to do.
It was off to Wichita, Texas for mechanic's school. From there he was assigned to a P-38 squad in California to be a mechanic. He became Crew Chief at Edward Field. From there he went to gun school in Utah where he graduated.
He was assigned to fly in a B-24 in Tucson, Arizona. There were ten people to a plane. He went from Tucson, Arizona to Springfield, Massachusetts for the second and third phases of training. He had to go to New York City for a new airplane and that is where he got his new hand gun, which was a forty-five. He still has that gun to this day.
After the stop in New York City, his crew flew to West Palm Beach, Florida for their final check. When the crew got into West Palms the nose wheel collapsed on the plane so they had to stay there for about a week waiting for a new plane. They ended up never getting a new plane so everyone was on their own to get to Europe.
So, Tyke and this guy he had become friends with took a bus to Homestead, Florida for the first leg to Africa. They hitched a ride on an ATC transporting a B-24. Their first stop was Puerto Rico, then on to Brazil. From Brazil they went on to French West Africa, and ended up in Tunis which is in North Africa. They then flew across to Berry, Italy. Tyke and his friend stayed in Berry for a few days. They were getting paid seven dollars and fifty cent per day and they were staying in hotels for one dollar per night.
After a few days they hitch-hiked north to find out where their outfit was. They had to set up a tent to sleep in. There was no heat in the camp, so Tyke and his friend hitch-hiked back to Berry and found a stovepipe to heat their tent. Their stove was the best stove in camp.
Tyke drew his first mission and was hit by a fighter outfit. They survived but the next crew got shot out of two planes. They took an old plane that no one used except for parts and when they fired it up the plane started and off they went. The plane lasted Tyke until his very last mission. He ended up with seven hundred and forty bullet holes in that plane on the last mission, but it still flew. Tyke flew thirty-five mission total while he was in the service.
After his last mission he went back to New York. In New York he wanted to go to the Broadway show Oklahoma which had recently opened. He was told he had to wait six months, so he decided not to get tickets. Strangely enough, Tyke was back in New York in exactly six months and twelve hours, but he never did get to see the Broadway show.
He skipped rest camp to go to B-29 school, then he was sent to Boise for Instructor of Engineers classes. He was then sent to California for more training, then to Portland where he was discharged. He got a job working for the Navy in Seattle. Soon after arriving back from the war, Tyke got married. Then, with a baby soon on the way, he and his wife decided to move to Hay, Washington where they still live today.