Father of AirSafe.com Creator to Receive Congressional Gold Medal

Normally, the articles on this site have some kind of connection to aviation. This aricle will be a notable exception.

Calvin Curtis, father of AirSafe.com creator Dr. Todd Curtis, will be presented with a Congressional Gold Medal, which is the highest civilian honor bestowed by the US Congress for distinguished achievement.

The medal was awarded to the Montford Point Marines in recognition of "their personal sacrifice and service to their country" as the first African-American Marines. Past recipients of the Congressional Gold Medal have included the Tuskegee Airmen; Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King; the Navaho Code Talkers, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, and Gen. Colin Powell.

There were originally over 20,000 Montford Point Marines, and perhaps fewer than 500 remain alive today. Many of the surviving Montford Point Marines were honored in a group ceremony last summer in Washington, DC. Other Montford Point veterans have been honored by Marine units in local ceremonies around the country.

The ceremony for Calvin Curtis will be held at 11 am on December 11, 2012, at the Naval Operational Support Center, located at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. The public is invited to attend, and AirSafe.com encourages anyone in the San Antonio area to do so. The links below provide directions to the event, as well as details about the ceremony.

Directions to the event and parking instructions

Program for the Ceremony

Additional Information
More on the life of Calvin Curtis
USMC History of the Montford Point Marines

Leave a Message for Calvin Curtis
If you are unable to attend, but would like to leave a message for Calvin Curtis, please feel free to leave your comments below:

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House Speaker Boehner's Remarks at
Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony

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Profile of Montford Point Marine William Washington
from KETC television in St. Louis

Make Us Proud: Documentary from
Marine Cpl. Kevin R. Wright

The Marines of Montford Point: Narrated by Louis Gossett, Jr.

Navy and Marine Corps Video News
Item from 15 February 2008

New Videos from AirSafe.com's Plane-Crash-Videos.net Site

The newest videos from Plane-Crash-Videos.net include two military crashes and one dramatic incident at sea.


B-52 Crash from 1994
The first is a dramatic crash of a B-52 at Fairchild Air Force Base in 1994. The article has several dramatic videos and photos from this fatal crash, but the story behind the crash, especially the social dynamics of the USAF unit involved in the crash, is even more interesting.

Helicopter Crash at Sea from 1999
A training exercise can go from routine to tragedy in a matter of seconds, as the video from this USMC crash from 1999 shows. While it looks like survival was unlikely, 11 of the 18 crew members were rescued.

The Chopper Was Wrecked, But All Survive
In this crash, a helicopter managed to hit a hanger and tear itself to pieces, but everyone walked away. This article has the video, as well as links to the NTSB's findings.

Almost a Helicopter Crash at Sea
In this video, reportedly involving a Greenpeace ship, a helicopter comes very close to crashing into the ship's helipad, or into some of the ship's crew members. Remarkably, everyone walked away from this one.