U.S. Air Force Korean War Mundelein, IL Flight date: 06/06/18
By Ellen Walsh, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interviews Volunteer
Growing up in a Rural Free Delivery (RFD) area you would not think a Minnesota farm boy would expect to see much of the world; but that definitely isn’t how Delford Becke’s life turned out.
In early 1952, at 22, Del received his draft notice, but he knew he had to enlist in one of the service branches. He always enjoyed building model airplanes growing up, so he chose to enlist in the Air Force. He rode the MKT (Missouri-Kansas-Texas) Railway to Lackland AFB in Texas for Basic Training. During Basic Training, they gave Del a bunch of tests and said “you are good in mathematics, we have a deal for you – we want you to be an aircraft AOB (Aircraft Observer Bombardier). There is a lot involved, and it takes about a year and half or so.” Training started at Ellington AFB near Pasadena TX, then on to Mayfair, CA to complete the training.. On May 8,1953, he received his Second Lieutenant’s commission then on May 15 he received his AOB wings.
“At Ellington I had all kinds of crazy jobs while waiting for training to begin. I counted inventory in the commissary and I installed pee tubes on the side of C47’s. All the time I thought I was going to Korea.” Delford flew the B25 and B26’s but never made it to Korea because a truce was declared and the DMZ was established. Instead, he was transferred to Hill AFB in Utah for further training on the B26’s. By 1954, he was training at Randolph AFB training for a new plane, the B57 twin jet bomber. Then it was back to Hill AFB for the rest of his service commitment. “I recall that one time we had a TDY (temporary duty) at Wendover AFB, Utah, and trained out there one summer.”
In 1956, after his discharge, Delford used the GI Bill and went to St. Olaf College in MN. One summer he took a physics class at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and while there, he met Joanne. She lived in Nebraska, so he transferred to the University of Nebraska, graduating in 1959 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry. In Nebraska, he chased Joanne until she caught him, and they have been married for 58 years.
They took advantage of an opportunity for Joanne to teach in Hawaii and Del attended only one semester of graduate school at the University of Hawaii. “I guess I was just burned out – too much academics.” He got his first job at a pineapple factory as a pineapple inspector, but after a year, Joanne was expecting their first child, so they returned home to Minnesota. Del got a job at the 3M Company in St. Paul and initially he was involved with the project of determining a better recipe for contact cement. He also worked on a zinc plating project with the new 3M products division.
Then one day in 1962, Del got a phone call from a navigator with the US Air Force 934th Troop Carrier Group at the Minneapolis/St Paul Airport. Since Del had been a navigator himself, did he want to come and join their group, drill once a month, and fly occasionally in a C119? Del enthusiastically joined, and as luck would have it, the Cuban Missile Crisis erupted. They were using C119’s to drop troops. Khrushchev and Kennedy got together, they compromised and we agreed not to drop troops from C119s into the eastern end of Cuba. They agreed to take the missiles out. Delford was on active duty from October to December 1962, and was stationed at Fort Campbell KY and Homestead AFB in Florida.
When he came off active duty, Delford joined the Minnesota Air National Guard. “As it turned out, my AOB wings were not good enough for the Air Guard so they sent me down to Connelly AFB in Waco, TX to be a real navigator.” So, in 1963, he was activated again and was in training for about a year. Back in Minnesota, he flew guard trips from March until June 1964, traveling to Germany, Spain, England, France, Scotland, Alaska, the Azores, and Bermuda. He flew weekend trips and also some longer trips. “On one of the ten-day trips we delivered medical supplies to Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam and the Philippines. Then we had a one-day turnaround into Vietnam. We flew early in the morning, offloaded medical supplies, picked up helicopter blades that had been all busted up, and carried them all the way back to California before returning to Minnesota.” Del continued to fly for the Air Guard as active duty or reserve until 1979 when he retired, then pursued a teaching career.
Continuing to move around, Del taught at high schools at various places in Minnesota, including Broughton and Hector. “Then the NSF (National Science Foundation) gave out scholarships to upgrade to a master’s degree. I went to Oregon State in Corvallis. When that ended, I came back to Minnesota, but there were no immediate jobs. I found out Germany was looking for science teachers, but it would require us to move to Bremen.” Del went to work for the Department of Defense teaching throughout Europe, Iceland and Okinawa until he and Joanne retired from teaching in 1987. During this same time period, Del and Joanne also purchased a fishing resort on Rush Lake in Minnesota which they would come back to run in the summers.
After fourteen years, they sold the resort and bought a house on Daggett Lake, north of Brainerd, Minnesota. “We loved it there, but in 2002, someone offered us so much money, we sold it and became homeless.” Actually, they moved to Illinois and bought a house near their son. Del has lived 32 different places and Joanne says she’s lived in 39 places. For the last 10 years, they’ve lived as caretakers in their son and daughter-in-law’s house in Mundelein, as their son is currently living out of state.
During all this time of teaching and traveling all around the world, Delford and Joanne managed to have four children and five grandchildren. Today, they are very active in their church and stay busy taking care of the house and yard.
Welcome home Delford Becke – thank you for your service! Enjoy your well-earned Honor Flight trip!