CURTIS W. HOWARD, LTJG, USN

Curtis Howard '38

Date of birth: August 31, 1917

Date of death: June 4, 1942

Age: 24

Lucky Bag

From the 1938 Lucky Bag:

CURTIS WILLIAM HOWARD

San Diego, California

Punchy, Curt

Curt is the kind of friend you need to have—one who will break his last drawing pencil in two and give you half. His friends are numerous and his credit is good—even at the Greek's. He entered the Academy at the tender age of sixteen and took up boxing and dragging as handicaps to give his classmates a chance in academics. He has a yen for boxing, sailing, tennis, week-end leaves, fast life, white meat, and chocolate cake. "Any old port in a storm," says he, but he really prefers blondes and brownettes to any other types. "Drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die." Possessed of a good sense of humor, exceptional perspicacity, and an able brain, he promises to become an apt officer.

Soccer 4; Lacrosse 4; Boxing 4, 3, 2, 1; Lieutenant (j.g.).

CURTIS WILLIAM HOWARD

San Diego, California

Punchy, Curt

Curt is the kind of friend you need to have—one who will break his last drawing pencil in two and give you half. His friends are numerous and his credit is good—even at the Greek's. He entered the Academy at the tender age of sixteen and took up boxing and dragging as handicaps to give his classmates a chance in academics. He has a yen for boxing, sailing, tennis, week-end leaves, fast life, white meat, and chocolate cake. "Any old port in a storm," says he, but he really prefers blondes and brownettes to any other types. "Drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die." Possessed of a good sense of humor, exceptional perspicacity, and an able brain, he promises to become an apt officer.

Soccer 4; Lacrosse 4; Boxing 4, 3, 2, 1; Lieutenant (j.g.).

Loss

Curtis was killed in action on June 4, 1942 during a strike on the Japanese fleet during the Battle of Midway.

Other Information

From Military Hall of Honor:

Curtis William was the son of Jasper Victor Howard and Prudence Estelle Wyman who were married in Olympia, WA on 28 May 1914. He was a surgeon in the US Navy and retired with the rank of Commander. Curtis' siblings were Hugh Wyman, Prudence Wyman, and Jasper Victor Howard Jr. Hugh served during WWII in the Navy and retired as a Commander. Jasper served in the Navy during WWII and Korea and retired as a Lieutenant Commander (Lcdr), United States Naval Reserve.
Curtis began his naval career on 7 Jun 1934 as an appointee from California to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. …
Curtis graduated on 2 Jun 1938 with a commission as an Ensign. He reported to the USS Pensacola (CA-24), a heavy cruiser, on 30 Jun 1938 as his first sea duty tour. He detached from USS Pensacola on 11 Sept 1939, and about a week later on 19 Sept 1939, he reported on board the USS Greer (DD-145), a destroyer located at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Ens. Howard detached from USS Greer on 5 July 1940 and transferred to the US Naval Air Station (NAS), Pensacola, FL on 29 July 1940 to begin flight training. He completed all phases of his flight instruction and was designated a naval aviator on 23 Jan 1941. Several weeks later on 07 Feb 1941, he was transferred to NAS Miami for several weeks of additional training. On 7 April he reported for duty to Torpedo Squadron Three (VT-3) assigned to the USS Saratoga (CV-3). The following day, 08 April 1941, he was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade (Ltjg).
Just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Saratoga (CV-3) was the flagship of the unsuccessful American effort to relieve the American garrison on Wake Island. Several weeks later, Saratoga was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. She returned to the West Coast shipyard at Bremerton for more extensive repairs. During the yard period Saratoga's embarked squadrons were transferred elsewhere. VT-3 was assigned first to NAS Pearl Harbor at Ford Island then to NAS Kaneohe Bay on Hawaii.
On 28 May 1942. the squadron was reassigned to the USS Yorktown (CV-5). About a week later on 4 June 1942 Ltjg Howard and his gunner ARM1 Harold C. Lundy Jr., launched from the flight deck of USS Yorktown (CV-5) with other elements of the Yorktown air group to attack the Japanese Striking Forces approaching Midway. Although they had some friendly fighter protection enroute to their targets VT-3 had to thread their way through a gauntlet of swarming enemy fighters and a hail of anti-aircraft fire. Of the twelve planes that took off from the Yorktown that morning only two survived the attack, but had to ditch later in the vicinity of friendly forces. Ltjg Howard and Petty Officer Lundy did not return from this mission, and they were listed as missing in action. Their remains were unrecoverable. On 5 Jun 1943 they were "presumed" dead.
Ltjg Howard was awarded (posthumously) the Navy Cross, Purple Heart, American Defense Service Medal (Fleet Clasp), American Campaign Medal (Fleet Clasp), Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one bronze battle star, and the World War II Victory Medal.
…
The USS Curtis W. Howard (DE 752) was named in his honor. The Howard was launched and christened on 26 March 1944. The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Prudence W. Wohleb, mother of the late Lt (j.g.) Howard. On 6 Jun 1944 construction was suspended and on 1 Sept 1944 construction was cancelled and it was broken up on the building way.
From Source: The KEY of KAPPA KAPPA GAMMA, vol. 61, number 3, October 1944. Publisher - George Banta Publishing Co., Menasha, WI. pp. 218, 229:

Ship Bears Name of Kappa's Son, Midway Hero . . .
Wherever the Destroyer escort U.S.S. Curtis W. Howard sails the seven seas, the prayers and thoughts of Prudence Wyman Howard Wohleb (Mrs. Joseph), B II- Washington, will follow. For last April Mrs. Wohleb christened the ship named for her son, the late Lieutenant (j.g.) Curtis W. Howard, U.S.N., naval air pilot, killed in the great and decisive battle of Midway, June 4, 1942. Mrs. Wohleb's daughter, Prudence Howard, was maid of honor at the launching ceremony in San Pedro, California. The shipyard that day had on all its buildings large posters bearing a sketch of the ship, the names of Mrs. Wohleb and her daughter as sponsor and maid of honor, and a paragraph from the citation posthumously awarded Lieutenant Howard. It reads as follows: "Lieutenant (j.g.) Curtis W. Howard was awarded the American Defense Service Medal (Fleet Clasp) 1939-1941, and the Navy Cross, with the following citation: 'In the face of tremendous enemy opposition and certain death, Lieutenant (j.g.) Howard pressed home his torpedo attack, scoring direct hits on two Japanese aircraft carriers. His action was in the highest tradition of the United States Navy.'"
After the ceremony Mr. and Mrs. Wohleb, Miss Howard and 20 intimate friends were entertained at luncheon at Roosevelt base, as guests of its commanding officer, Captain Schuyler Heim, U.S.N., husband of Ramona McCudden Heim, B H-Stanford. A handsome silver tray was presented to Mrs. Wohleb in remembrance of the occasion.

[apparently no one told the magazine that the ship was never built. The contract was cancelled before it was completed.]

From naval aviation historian Richard Leonard via email on February 9, 2018:

NAS Pensacola attached for HTA flight training, 7/29/1940

NAS Pensacola designated NA # 7090, 1/30/1941

VT-3 USS Saratoga (CV-3), 4/4/41

Date of rank LTJG from 1 Jul 1941 USN Register, 6/2/1941

VT-3 (Flight Officer) USS Yorktown (CV-5) NX PH KIA BNR, 6/4/1942

His mother was listed as next of kin. William has a memory marker in Hawaii.

Also from Military Hall of Honor:

From the Daily Sitka Sentinel, Sitka, Alaska - p. 8. Friday, March 14, 1986:

. . . In February 1885, Henrietta Cohen was named postmaster at Sitka and held the post until November of that year when she married Dr. Hugh S Wyman and moved to Juneau and Douglas. He may have arrived at Sitka as a Navy doctor. For a time he was physician to the Treadwell Mining Company and their daughter Prudence, was said to have been the first white child born on Douglas Island. Paulina Cohen, the oldest of the four Cohen girls, taught school for a time and ran the Baranoff Hotel (yes, Sitka had a Baranoff Hotel before Juneau did), and became postmaster in August 1890. She married Alexander Archangelsky in 1897 and continued as postmaster until January 1900. Archangelsky came to Sitka from Moscow in 1894 to teach in the school operated by the Russian Church. He then worked in some of the mines and clerked in a store until 1903 when the couple went to California and he studied mining engineering at the University of California. He returned to Alaska to work in the Treadwell mines, then became the engineer in charge of developing the Chichag of Mine. About 1910 the Archangelskys retired to Tahiti. In the meanwhile, Estelle Cohen married a man named Abrahams about whom nothing is known, and Augusta Cohen married Lieutenant Robert Coontz who was then stationed at Sitka on the USS Pinta. He eventually became an admiral, the Chief of Naval Operations and commander-in-chief of the U.S. Fleet. His autobiography, "From Alaska to the Sea, " has an account of his years in Sitka. Aaron Cohen died in Juneau in July 1887, at the age of 27. Abraham Cohen died in Sitka in October 1892, and his wife in Olympia, Washington, the following year. Marcus Cohen, who was prominent in both business and civic affairs at Juneau, died suddenly in August 1899.

From the Daily Sitka Sentinel, Sitka, Alaska, Page 3. Friday, July 5, 1991:

Great-Grandson of Early-Day Sitka Brewer Sails in for Visit
Jack Howard [Jasper Victory Howard Jr., the brother of the late Curtis William Howard, Ltjg, US Navy] whose great-grandfather, Abraham Cohen, operated a brewery in Sitka from 1868 until his death in 1892, was a Sitka visitor this past week with his 50-foot cruiser, the Knot Bad. Howard's grandmother, Henrietta Cohen, was Sitka's postmaster in 1885 and his grandfather, Dr. Hugh S. Wyman, arrived here in 1883 and served as surgeon for the Navy ships Adams and Pinta. He married Miss Cohen in November 1885 and moved to Treadwell as physician for the Treadwell Mining Company. Howard's mother, Prudence Wyman Howard, was the first white child born on Douglas Island. The Wymans moved across Gastineau Channel to Juneau where Dr. Wyman carried on a medical practice and operated a small gold mine. The family moved from Juneau to Olympia, Wash., at the turn of the century. Jack Howard, who resides in Seattle, is himself no stranger to Alaska.

Photographs

Howard at Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Territory of Hawaii, on 29 May 1942, six days before his death in action during the Battle of Midway

Navy Cross

From Hall of Valor:

The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Lieutenant, Junior Grade Curtis William Howard (NSN: 0-81335), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Torpedo Plane of Torpedo Squadron THREE (VT-3), attached to the U.S.S. YORKTOWN (CV-5), during the "Air Battle of Midway," against enemy Japanese forces on 4 June 1942. Participating in a Torpedo Plane assault against Japanese naval units, Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Howard, in the face of tremendous anti-aircraft fire and overwhelming fighter opposition, pressed home his attack to a point where it became relatively certain that, in order to accomplish his mission, he would probably sacrifice his life. Undeterred by the grave possibilities of such a hazardous offensive, he carried on, with extreme disregard for his own personal safety, until his squadron scored direct hits on two enemy aircraft carriers. His self sacrificing gallantry and fortitude were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
General Orders: Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 309 (December 1942)
Action Date: 4-Jun-42
Service: Navy
Rank: Lieutenant Junior Grade
Company: Torpedo Squadron 3 (VT-3)
Division: U.S.S. Yorktown (CV-5)

Namesake

USS Curtis W. Howard (DE 752) was launched and christened in 1944 by his mother, Prudence W. Wohleb, but never completed.

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.