James Curtis, Jr. served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a Captain with the Air Transport Command in World War II. On May 29, 1945, he piloted a B-25H Mitchell #43-4447 out of Reno Army Airfield destined for Salinas, California where he was to assume command of the Air Transport Command there. The twin engine bomber encountered severe weather over the Sierra Nevada Range. While attempting to return to the airfield, the bomber crashed into Crystal Mountain, fourteen miles northwest of Reno, Nevada.