Duarte, Curtis Joseph

Curtis Joseph Duarte was born in 1990 and grew up in Covina, California, a city in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and was assigned to 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 6, I Marine Expeditionary Force Forward, based out of Twentynine Palms, California.

On August 1, 2012, Duarte was killed while conducting combat operations in the volatile Helmand province of southern Afghanistan. The Marine Corps listed his death as the result of hostile action. He was one of at least three U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan that day, according to Department of Defense announcements.

Duarte's death occurred during Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan that began in October 2001. By 2012, the war was in its eleventh year, with a significant U.S. and allied troop presence focused on counterinsurgency and training Afghan forces, particularly in southern provinces like Helmand.

Duarte's death was reported by multiple news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, which noted his Southern California hometown. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal. The exact details of the engagement that led to his death were not widely detailed in public reports.

He is memorialized on the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines unit memorial and on the Afghanistan War casualty lists maintained by the Department of Defense and independent archives. His name is inscribed on panel 30W, line 111 of the Afghanistan Veterans Memorial Wall in Ontario, California.

Lance Corporal Duarte was killed during Operation Enduring Freedom (2001?2014). The conflict concluded in December 2014. See the full roster of those killed in this conflict.

Among those documented in the same conflict: Andrews, Evander Earl, Edmunds, Jonn Joseph, Stonesifer, Kristofor Tif, Davis, Bryant Leroy.

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