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Soldier from Dania Beach remembered |
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Written by CRYSTAL POTTS
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 As an honors student at Hollywood Hills High, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Curry Jr. surprised his family in 1987 when he told them he was enlisting in the Army instead of going to college.
“Lil’ Michael always had a plan that he wanted to do good in his life. He wanted a purpose. He wanted to serve his country,” said his sister, Keisha Robinson, 39, of Coconut Creek.
Curry, 37, a Dania Beach native, and three other soldiers were fatally wounded July 23 when a bomb exploded next to their vehicle in the Sarobi District in the southeastern region of Afghanistan.
A full military memorial in Curry’s honor will take place at 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Greater Mount Zion AME Church in Dania Beach.
Curry was part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade out of Caserma Ederle (Camp Ederle) in Vicenza, Italy.
He lived in Italy with his wife Lucia and their two sons, Kevin, 9, and Taylor, 12.
A 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army, Curry was among the first group of paratroopers to arrive in Iraq in March 2003. He served in Operation Desert Storm and in the Iraq War.
But after returning to Italy from Iraq, he told relatives he did not want to return to Afghanistan.
“It was his second time in Afghanistan. He was devastated when he heard that he was to report for duty,’’ Robinson said. “My sister-in-law [Lucia] stated that he didn’t want to go. I don’t know if it was a premonition. She said that she had never saw him cry the way he did.’’
Robinson said she woke up on the day of her brother’s death with a queasy feeling. Although she is two years older than her brother, she describes the instinct she had for him as the “twin feeling.”
She knew that something was wrong and prayed to God for help. The phone call from her sister, Niki Martin, 35, confirming Curry’s death came at 4:30 that morning.
Robinson’s son, 20-year-old Rahmel Robinson, answered the call and didn’t want to give her the information.
Curry last saw his family during Christmas 2004. He didn’t visit them often, but when he did, it was usually for difficult occasions such as a death in the family.
His last visit, however, was a joyous one. He took his wife, Lucia, and sons to Atlanta, where they visited his sisters and then went to Daytona Beach. There, the rest of his family had already gathered at his aunt’s house for the holiday.
Curry surprised the family when he showed up there because he did not tell them he was coming.
While in Florida, he also visited his grandfather, Dennis Curry Sr., 88 and his great-grandmother, Zadie Thompson, 102.
“The day after Christmas my brother drove to Dania Beach to visit them. He left without anyone knowing, except for his wife. He wanted to spend the day with his grandfather,” Robinson said.
Curry’s sisters describe him as a loving and protective but private person who always believed in working.
When he was younger and employed at Winn-Dixie, he would bring home his paycheck, set some money aside for savings, and then give a weekly lunch allowance to his younger sisters, Niki and Lavette.
Once he was out of the house and enlisted in the Army, his giving didn’t stop; he would send money from his military allowances back home to his mother.
“You always knew he cared about you. He was a good person and a good person to know. I’m not just saying that because he was my brother,” said Lavette Curry, 34.
“He was just the best man in the world and I will always remember the last hug that he gave me [on Christmas 2004] because it was so tight and long,” said Robinson as she cried while mourning for her brother.
The government only offered financial assistance to Curry’s parents and his wife.
Family members say this was no help to them because his mother passed away in 1994 and his father died in 2001.
“The government didn’t offer anything to say [we want] to help or we can send money [to other relatives] in place of our parents,’’ Robinson said. “It’s really troubling because my brother gave 20 years of his life for a war that we don’t even know what we’re fighting for. Our hearts go out to the families of the three other soldiers but again we ask what did they really die for?”
Fisher House, a “unique private-public partnership that supports America's military in their time of need,” recently decided to sponsor three of Curry’s siblings, Lavette Curry, Jeffrey Green and David Michael.
Although Curry is gone, he leaves his family with memories that will always stay with them.
Robinson remembers the time she and her brother got into mischief while their mother was taking a nap. From then on, their mother tied them, one to each of her arms, and made them take a nap with her to keep them out of trouble.
Curry fondly remembers the time when her brother’s job was to do her hair for elementary school while their mother and grandmother were in Las Vegas.
She said looking back on the memory that he was not good at styling hair: “I was younger and I didn’t know any better because I thought I looked good,” she said.
Robinson said, “I was extremely proud of him. I was not proud of the way he left this earth and what he left behind, but I’m proud of the man that he was and what he became.”
In addition to his wife, sons and sisters, Keisha Robinson, Niki Martin and Lavette Curry, Michael Curry Jr. is survived by two other sisters, Georgette Curry, 26, of Atlanta and Danielle Curry, 15, of Dania Beach; and two brothers, Jeffrey Greene, 37, of Cooper City and David Michael, 30, of Detroit.
A memorial service was held on July 27 in Italy.
Saturday’s 11 a.m. military memorial service will take place at the Greater Mount Zion AME Church, 215 NW 5th Ave. in Dania Beach.
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