Shipmate Search: USS Curtiss reunion set for Sept. 9-12 in Minneapolis

HARLINGEN — If you served on the USS Curtiss, someone wants to talk to you.

B. Bruce Snider, who served on the vessel as a dental technician from 1953-54, wants to contact anyone else who served on the ship during its 17 years of duty.

"That ship was old," said Snider, the newly elected president of the USS Curtiss Association. Snider, 78, said the ship was commissioned in 1940 and decommissioned in 1957.

"It was at Pearl Harbor during the attack, and we still have members who were aboard during the attack," Snider said.

Later, in 1945, the Curtiss survived a kamikaze attack when a Japanese pilot dove his plane straight into the ship. During Snider’s tour of duty on the Curtiss, the vessel participated in the testing of an atomic bomb as part of Operation Castle.

Former shipmates have a reunion each year; this year, the reunion will be held Sept. 9-12 in Minneapolis. Next year, Snider said, the reunion will be held in Tucson, Ariz.

"Last year we had it at Branson (Mo.), and that’s when they elected me president," Snider said. "In the winter time, we have about four or five couples come down here. We have gotten together and had what we call a mini-reunion. We’ll 0meet over at Luby’s or someplace like that and have a dinner."

Unfortunately, while former shipmates of the USS Curtiss keep memories of their time onboard alive, the ship itself was scrapped long ago.

"Being aboard any ship, we would have liked to have seen it turned into a museum," Snider said. "I enjoyed my work. I enjoyed being a dental technician aboard, then. I didn’t end up being a dentist. I ended up going back to college and became a teacher for a while."

Snider had studied at East Texas State College in Commerce (now Texas A&M University-Commerce) before entering the military. After his term of service he completed his studies at the institution. He then taught vocational agriculture in Santa Rosa from 1959-1961 before finishing his master’s in Commerce. He’d already accumulated a large amount of coursework so he was able to finish in the summer of 1961 with only two more courses. He then taught science at Harlingen High School from 1961-1972.

"I’ve always enjoyed whatever I was doing," he said. "The last couple of years I didn’t really enjoy the teaching part, because that’s about the time everything started changing, so I quit and went into private consulting. The students were not respectful. It was the beginning of the hippie movement."

Snider would like to speak with anyone who served on the USS Curtiss. Anyone who served can call him at 956-423-3314. To learn more about the USS Curtiss, go to www.usscurtissav4.com.