Iraq veteran transitioned to Hollywood life

Local veteran transitions to Hollywood life
News Telegram
By Lynne Klaft, CORRESPONDENT
December 1, 2013

LANCASTER — Helen Curtis' home on Mill Street is a touchstone for Ryan Curtis.

He lived next door to his grandmother for a few years, went there for family gatherings and dinners, and came back from Iraq to a welcome-home celebration of friends and family at his Nana Curtis' house.

He knows what coming home means to a veteran.

The 2001 graduate of Clinton High School started college and then enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves in August 2001. The 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Center happened a few weeks later, and circumstances interrupted Mr. Curtis' plan to study media communications. Instead, he became an engineer in the US Army and was part of the Iraqi invasion from February 2003 to April 2004.

His grandmother was worried about Ryan and his father, Ted, who was also serving in the Army Reserves in Iraq, throughout that entire period.

"Ted decided to transfer to where Ryan was so that they could be together overseas. I was worried the whole time and didn't know what the war would bring. When they came back together, it was more than I could believe. They were safe," said Mrs. Curtis, who couldn't wait for them to arrive. She got a family member to drive her to New York to see them come off of the plane with her own eyes.

The family put up a big "Welcome Home, Ryan!" sign up in front of the Mill Street home for the celebration.

"He was always a sweet fellow, joking and performing for us at our dinners, he always had something to say or do to make me laugh," said Mrs. Curtis, as she looked through her photo album memories of Ryan growing up.

He moved to Los Angeles in 2010 and worked hard on small jobs, lived on unemployment in between, and worked his way up to directing small commercials and music videos. He joined a group, Veterans in Film and Television, in its infancy. The organization now has 1,500 members in Los Angeles and New York. read more here