Sergeant Curtis was a member of Company I, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy in North Korea on December 12, 1950 and died while a prisoner on June 30, 1951. SGT Curtis' remains have been recovered and accounted for.. His name is permanently inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.