Curtis Hayes:
CLASS OF 1974
Lanier High SchoolClass of 1974
Austin, TX
Curtis's Story
After Lanier, I moved to Houston with my family. I worked in the elevator construction trade on hi-rise buildings, then later worked as a pipefitter in the oil refineries south of Houston. We moved again, this time to San Antonio, where I worked as a pipefitter for a small company. I had always wanted to join the military and looked at the Marines, Air Force, and submarines in the Navy, but when my co-worker, a former Green Beret medic in Vietnam, told me about the Coast Guard I checked them out. I enlisted in March 78 and did basic training in Alameda, CA. My first station was a small boat unit in Galveston. I wanted to stay in TX because I planned on doing 4 years and getting out. I was interested in electronics, and was picked up for aviation electronics training in NC. I was in school for 7 mos and selected Corpus Christi as my first airstation. Coast Guard aviation rates fly as aircrewman as well as work on all the aircraft systems. No two days were ever the same and I liked the work that I did and the people I was stationed with. I trained & flew in both Search and Rescue fixed wing and helicopters. I reenlisted and transferred to gorgeous Port Angeles, WA where I lived and flew helicopters in WA, Oregon,& California for 4 yrs from 82-86. My next stop was Mobile, AL, and I stayed there 7yrs, from 86-93. I was qualified in 3 different helos, and I started flying fixed wings again as we geared up to start flying missions in the war on drugs. After numerous trips to the Caribbean, Central & South America, it was time to depart Mobile. I attended the Navy's advanced electronics training in Memphis for a year, and was then sent to Miami, from 94-99. I was also able to attend our 20th class reunion during this move, where I caught up with some of my old classmates. I once again traveled extensivly through the southern hemisphere. My last and final move in 1999 took me back to NC to the Aviation Technical Training Center in Elizabeth City, as an electronics instructor. I retired from active duty in 2004 with almost 27 yrs of service. I work for L-3 Communications now as a contract instructor for the CG, teaching our aviation students how to work on aircraft and mentoring them to be aircrewman aboard their respective aircraft. Along the way, I've picked up my Bachelor's degree from Embry- Riddle Aeronautical Univ. and plan to continue with my Master's in the near future.
I look back at my time at Lanier with fond memories. I ...Expand for more
knew I would not return to Austin, and I feel that I would never have experienced what the US & the world has to offer if I had stayed in the area. I have 6 more states remaining to have visited all 50, as well as having traveled from Alaska & Canada down to South America. The world is truly a small place. I was even able to be involved in the making of a tv movie while I was in Mobile, "Mission of the Shark". It starred Stacey Keach as the Captain of the USS Indianapolis, its sinking from a Japanese torpedo and his susbsequent court martial for the incident. That's me, I'm sitting right in the front during the trial scene, I was picked for a non-speaking prosecutor assistant role. Acting classes at Lanier would have been very beneficial, so who knew. Speaking of movies, 'The Guardian' was mostly filmed at the training center where I work, and many of the rescue swimmer instructors that were in the movie are my friends, very professional, highly motivated people. That movie brings back too many memories of middle of the night helo cases, hovering in pitch black over a disabled vessel that's pitching around wildly in high seas, and getting the people off of it before their boat sinks out from below them. I've also had my picture taken along with our crew with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders on a trip to Cuba. At 4 AM that morning we launched and busted a plane and boat carrying drugs, and that afternoon we met them for a photo before we both departed the island, just a regular day at the office. I've also had the pleasure of escorting a female novelist and her husband on a training/photo helicopter flight, as she used her time at the airstation in Port Angeles for the backdrop of a novel 'Red Tail'. These are just a few of my normal workdays, what can I say, I enjoyed the job. I know that I was a quiet person in school, but I'm very much a completely different person today. As time passed over the last few years it also came to my attention through geneology research that my 12th generation uncle was James Knox Polk, our 11th US President. Something always gnawed inside at me that there was an internal drive and motivation that I couldn't explain. Now I know what it was & where it came from.
I've been blessed to have 3 great children, 2 sons and a daughter, and a beautiful wife of 31 yrs. Alas, I also have the same barber that a lot of our male classmates have (none-I'm my own barber). Oh well you can't have everything!
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