1905 - 1980
Hines - Rinaldi Funeral Home 11800 New Hampshire Ave. Silver Spring, Maryland

Death Notice
Retired Army Lt. Col. Vincent L. Curl, 74, died June 2 of cancer at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C.

His widow is the former Phyllas Enenbach of Manning. Surviors also include two sons, Dr. Mark Curl of Deale, Maryland, and Vincent S. Curl, Bowie, Maryland, a sister Monica Dawson of Falls Church, and one grandchild.

Curl was a member of the Manning American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts.

Col. Curl was a commando officer with the Office of Strategic Services in Burma during World War II. He was a member of the OSS's Detachment 101, which operated behind Japanese lines in Burma during the war. Their assignment was to direct sabotage missions against enemy installations, pinpoint bombing targets, and encourage Burmese to fight the Japanese.

As the commander of less than a dozen American officers and about 350 native Kachin tribesmen, Col. Curl gathered intelligence, ambushed Japanese patrols, and scouted for Allied air and ground forces for 28 months before being evacuated with injuries.

His decorations included the Silver Star Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Purple Heart. By the end of the war, he was helping direct plans for an OSS-sponsored project to form an uprising in Korea, thus preventing the Japanese from withdrawing troops from Korea to reinforce Japan itself.

Col. Curl was first sergeant of an infantry company in Hawaii when the war broke out. He was a native of Winchester, Virginia, who during a 17-year career as an enlisted man, had earned a reputation as an athlete and a soldier who could get things done.

Col. Curl remained in the Army after the war. He served as a recruiting officer in Baltimore for a time, then returned to combat in Korea during the conflict there. He retired from active duty in 1954 and made his home in Washington, D.C., until moving to Fort Myers, Florida, two years ago. His widow now resides there.

Funeral services were held June 6, with burial in the Arlington National Cemetery.