Monday was Veterans Day. Four days previously, a Rockdale veteran, and legendary businessman, received an award that is mind-boggling.
Milton R. “Jim” Currey, a World War II veteran, received his 75-year-pin from the American Legion that day at his home. (See page 2A)
“We (the Legion) don’t give out too many of these,” Rockdale Carlyle Post Commander Jim McKimmey told Currey as he began the presentation.
This is the Legion’s centennial year and Currey was also presented a pin commemorating the group’s 100 years of service to veterans. It’s stunning to realize that Currey has been a member for three-fourths of the time there has been an American Legion.
Currey is 96. He was an Army medic in the South Pacific during World War II, serving on the crucial island of Saipan. He was also in a cavalry unit based in Brackettville, Texas.
At the start of World War II the Army figured, since horses had played a big role in the previous war, they would be key to its success in this one.
But World War II would turn out to be a different kind of war, with different kinds of horsepower, including tens of thousands of airplanes.
And a lot of ingenuity. Currey was stationed on an island in the Marianas without enough suitable land for a runway to enable B-29 bombers to take off. But somebody figured out if a runway was built to the edge of a steep, tall cliff the planes could launch into the air, fall toward the ocean, reach airborne speed and pull up to begin their missions.
Some of them didn’t make it.
Currey returned to Rockdale and joined the Legion. In the ensuing 75 years he served in many positions in the Carlyle Post, including commander and adjutant.
In 1954 he founded Jim Currey Real Estate, just in time for the Alcoa housing boom in the early and middle part of that decade. He’s long retired, of course, but the business is still going strong and still bears his name.
For 45 years he served as a special commissioner/ judge on land issues in Milam County hearing cases on pipelines and other transactions.
He was also Milam County’s emergency management director for several years.
Currey was a member of the Rockdale Volunteer Fire Department for 30 years and served as Rock-dale Fire Marshal for seven.
Somehow he found time to put together a championship caliber Carlyle Post baseball team which one year came within one game of winning the Texas state championship and qualifying for the national finals.
The respect in which he is held by the Legionnaires was evident before, during and after the brief presentation ceremony. Everyone in the room stayed for about 40 minutes to talk with the honoree and hear him share stories of the past that included his service, his civic activities and his family.
If you want to know why they call them “The Greatest Generation” you could read scores of books, take a college course or study sociology.
Or you could just spend five minutes with Jim Currey.—M.B.
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