WARTIME JOURNAL | PART 4
Curry’s Final Days at War
As this four-part series on the wartime journal of Charles “Woody” Curry comes to a close, the final entries carry readers through the last stretch of World War II in the Pacific, and back home again for one Livingston County sailor who saw it all from the deck of a wartime cruiser.
Curry, who grew up in Carrsville and graduated from Hampton High School, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in May 1944 at just 18 years old. What began as a journey away from rural western Kentucky quickly became a sometimes terrifying front-row seat to history as he served aboard the USS Boise during the campaign to retake the Philippines.
From bombardments and air raids to kamikaze attacks and invasion landings, Curry recorded it all in a diary he kept throughout his service. It was a diary he was not technically supposed to keep in such detail, but one he maintained anyway. That decision left behind a rare, firsthand account of war through the eyes of a young sailor. The final section of his journal reflects a war moving toward its conclusion.
Entries describe bombardments along the Philippine coast, the devastation
of Manila, solemn moments following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and continued operations as American forces pushed forward. By mid-June 1945, Curry notes USS Boise preparing to head back toward the United States, marking the end of his wartime experience.
After the war, Curry returned to civilian life and, like many of his generation, went back to work. He found work in Gary, Ind., as did a number of people from this area, before returning closer to home where he worked on the river as both an engineer and pilot on towboats, navigating the same waterways that had shaped his upbringing along the Ohio River. Later, he worked at the General Tire plant in Mayfield, building a life rooted in steady work and family.
In retirement, Curry enjoyed simpler pursuits such as camping trips, time on the water and woodworking. It was the kind of quiet, hands-on activities that suited a man who had seen far more than most. Today, Curry lives at Salem Springlake nursing home in Salem, where he has resided for the past couple of years following a stroke. Though his mobility has declined, those who know him there say he remains sharp and engaged, and still willing to talk about his days as a Seaman First Class in the Navy.
To staff and residents alike, he is more than just a veteran. He is a storyteller, a living connection to a defining chapter in American history, and, in many ways, a hero in their midst. Curry is believed to be the last living World War II veteran from Livingston or neighboring Crittenden counties.
His diary, written in simple, steady entries by a teenager far from home, preserves not just the movements of a ship or the milestones of a war, but the experience of a generation. What began in those pages with flying fish, changing clocks and a long journey across the Pacific ended with a return home, and a life that, like many of his fellow veterans, was built not on what he saw in war, but on what he did after it.
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| Young Woody Curry back home in Gary, Indiana |
Service Diary Part 4
March 1, 1945 – June 15, 1945
The final section of the journal captures the closing months of the war in the Pacific, when hard fighting continued but the broader outcome was no longer in doubt. The sailor’s entries move from bombardments and troop landings to ruined cities, dry dock repairs and solemn remembrance after the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As the ship heads toward Borneo and carries MacArthur once more, the journal takes on the feel of a war entering its last act. March 1945
We had recreation today but I didn’t get to go. I’m supposed to go
