Curtis Gavin Spackman

Pvt. Curtis Gavin Spackman (July 14, 1927 - October 2, 2003) was an American soldier during the Korean War who was captured by the Chinese and was one of several US soldiers at the end of the war who decided they would rather stay in China than return to the US. He later settled in Poland.

Biography
Curtis was born in. He dropped out of high school, and was arrested in 1945 for robbery. When he was given the option of joining the US Armed Forces or going to jail, he decided to enter the US Army in hopes of earning "true friends" and some experience. He was with the Army for 4 years and participated in the.

Captured and made a prisoner of war by the Chinese People's Volunteer Army troops, he chose to remain in China after the signing of the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement. While in China, he worked in a steel mill in that turned old weapons and cutlery into aircraft parts. He married a Polish woman, Izabella Spackmanska (née Borowiecka), who was raised in a convent in and worked for the Polish embassy in. Curtis and Izabella moved to in 1966, settling in. They had a son in Poland, Leszek Spackman.

Spackman occasionally returned to the United States, including once in 1976 to celebrate the bicentennial and another time in 1998 to attend the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. He died on October 2, 2003 in Toruń and is buried in Cemetery of St. George.