Richard A Beck was born on 18 July 1922 in Arizona.  The US Census 1930 lists the family as residing in Tucson. Beck graduated from Tusser High School, and was attending San Bernardino Junior College when he joined the service. Beck enlisted on September 10, 1942 as a private in the Army Air Forces in Los Angeles, California. He was selected for flight duty, and trained as a pilot. He was then moved to transitional flying with multi-engine aircraft. He was commissioned, awarded wings, and given a crew for training purposes. This crew later deployed to England, arriving at Thorpe-Abbots on December 24, 1944. They were assgined a B-17 G (42-102968). The crew was dispatched on 5 missions.  On February 3, 1945, the crew was scheduled to bomb the Tempelhof marshalling yards outside of Berlin, Germany. The aircraft was hit by flak in the target area, and both starboard engines caught fire. Beck attempted to extinguish the fire by a steep dive, but to no avail. The aircraft then pulled up, did a half roll, a split S, and fell, totally enveloped in flames. Witnesses saw two chutes deploy. Seven bodies were recovered from the crash site, while the two parachutists were captured. The dead were buried in a POW cemetery at Dallgon-Dobertiz, and retrieved after the war. The Bomber’s copilot, Walter A. Rosenberger, and Ball Turret Gunner, Dudley Ingraham are also buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery.

Information provided by Luc van der Sterren