Thomas Henry Curtis

Thomas was a resident of Air Force Village 11 since December 2005.

He is survived by his wife Bonnie Rae Curtis; a son, Thomas H. Curtis Jr. and his two children, Bryce and Lindsey Curtis of Colorado Springs CO; a daughter, Pamela A. Nelson her husband, Jim Nelson and their four daughters, Sabrina, Britney, Holly and Hannah of Cibolo, TX.; a daughter, Shelley Triboulet her husband Jeff and their daughter, Haven O'Quinn all of Birmingham AL.

Thomas was born July 31, 1932 at the hospital in Orofino, Idaho. In his words, "As far as I know, I was a fat and healthy child with no compilations delivered by Dr. Hopkins."

He grew up and went to school in Orofino, Idaho and Pierce Idaho. Thomas graduated from the University of Idaho in 1954 and majored in Psychology with minor studies in Zoology.

After college, he joined the Air Force and was commissioned as a second lieutenant and received his pilot wings via the Aviation cadet program in Jan 1956. After completing advanced fighter training, F-84s at Luke AFB AZ, he was assigned to a Photo Reconnaissance Squadron in Europe. Thomas returned to Shaw AFB South Carolina where he flew RF 101s and was awarded his first distinguished Fly Cross for flying Level Photo Missions over Cuba during the Cuban crisis. He got back into TAC Fighter as was assigned to an F 105D squadron in Itazuke and Yokota, Japan, and then went PCS to South East Asia in 1965 and completed 100 combat missions over North Vietnam in the F105D Flying out of Korat Thailand.

Thomas returned to the States and was assigned to an F-106 Fighter Interceptor Squadron Flying out of Kincheloe AFB MI, Great Falls MT and TDY to Alaska and Korea. Out of Fighter Interceptors and back into TAC Fighters F-4Es for a second combat tour at Korat, Thailand.

He returned back to the States F-106s again, then to United Kingdom, RAF Alconbury, flying F-SEs.

After he returned to the States, he retired after a short time in Cheyenne Mt Colorado Springs, CO.

He hung up his AF wings with almost 6,000 hours of fighter time over 350 hours of combat time, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, thirteen Air medals, two AF Commendation medals, and various awards and decorations.

He continued his flying as a civilian and was an instructor pilot for the Peterson AFB Aero club and pulled gliders in Colorado Springs. Thomas flew for flying safety, Cessna Citation for awhile.

He then hired on as a pilot with Horizon Airlines out of Portland, OR and stayed with them for about nine years. Thomas served as Capt. in SA227s, Metro Liner & Dash-8. In 1992, he had to give up airline flying . He worked part time for CSSI, INC as technician doing RVSM monitoring and flew his last flight in at age 77, in 2009. After over 18,000 hours of flying and gobs of airborne monitoring, it was time to hang up his wings for good.