Charles Lawrence Curtis
Lake City, Minnesota

 The month-long sojourn at San Antonio, Samar, the 93rd’s first stop in the Philippines, was their most enduring experience of combat.  They had followed a typhoon into the murky swamp between Leyte Gulf where an armada of Naval vessels were hovering and the mountains leading to the new Army air strip at Tacloban.

Japanese planes flying over the mountains to attack Tacloban drew fire from both Tacloban and the ships in the Gulf.  The resultant debris was raining down on the 93rd whose members were spending more time in foxholes than ever before.  On Nov. 26, 1944, a 20 mm dud blew off the end a friend’s bunk 10 feet away from Bob Conner.. 

The next day, Bud Collins was eating lunch with Charles Lawrence Curtis who told him,  “I feel like I’m going to get it.”  Shortly after that, a dogfight sent the men into their foxholes.  As Collins and Curtis huddled together in a foxhole under one of the new buildings, a shell struck Curtis, killing him instantly. A Church service was proceeding only 100 feet away.  Ironically, Curtis’ wife was on one of the ships in the Gulf nearby

 A man from another Seabee unit had been killed at the same time. The men were buried together in Tacloban's Cemetery with brief and simple services conducted by Chaplain Ball.