JoAnne Rademacher, Contributor
This is the story of a young Navy pilot, his son the physician, and the Berry Plan. On September 7, 1945, Joycelyn Beck, wife of Navy aviator Linwood Beck, gave birth to identical twin boys, Richard and Charles.
Navy Lieutenant Beck flew PBY sea planes during WWII rescuing downed pilots in the Pacific Ocean. He had been stationed in the Aleutian Islands, Pearl Harbor, and the Solomon Islands. After returning to the mainland, he was stationed in Pensacola, Florida where he worked as a flight instructor.
This was where his sons were born. In October 1945, after Lt. Beck’s Honorable Discharge, he moved his young family home to Fergus Falls, Minnesota and civilian life.
According to Richard (Dick), his dad never talked about his service. It still scared him. Dick did learn of a time when LT Beck was scheduled for a flight out of Hawaii that was bumped to a later time. The earlier scheduled mission went down and the whole crew was killed.
Life in Minnesota was peaceful and the family thrived. Linwood and Joycelyn grew a business and added two more sons to the family. Dick and Charles (Chuck) were equally matched scholastically and athletically, graduating from high school in 1963. Both went on to study at University of Minnesota, receiving student deferments of military service which allowed them to finish college and apply for medical school. Here is where we begin to follow Dick’s experiences with the Berry Plan and military service.
In 1945, the Draft was allowed to expire. Reenacted in 1948 and until 1973, through war and peace, men were drafted to fill vacancies not filled by volunteers. Physicians had been drafted since WWII and could be forced to suspend any remaining training they were in. Frank Berry, M.D., was an Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1954 to 1961. He devised a way to allow U.S. trained physicians to defer military service until they had completed medical training. The Berry Plan allowed deferment until they completed one year of internship, one year of residency, or fully completed a residency program. Most, although not all, were allowed to complete residency before service. The Plan ended in 1973 with the last four physicians completing training and entering service in 1980.
Dick signed onto the Berry Plan when his college deferment expired and he was about to enter medical school. It would allow him to complete residency before active service. At this point he was commissioned First Lieutenant Richard Beck. In September 1966, he married his high school sweetheart, my sister, Mary. My family was very blessed that day! They made their home in Minneapolis where he began medical school twelve days after the wedding.
In the fall of 1969 during his senior year of medical school, 24 year-old 1st Lt Beck and Mary made a road trip west. He interviewed for residency in Internal Medicine in Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland, and Seattle which triggered a rather involved selection process between hospital programs and graduates.
They didn’t know until April where they would be in June. 1st Lt Beck’s first choice was Denver where he was one of only twenty residents chosen out of fifteen hundred applications. His specialty required three years of residency with no internship.
During residency in Denver, the 1st Lt worked in the University of Colorado Medical Center, the Denver VA, and Denver General Hospital. Denver General moved into a brand new facility in 1971 so he enjoyed working in a state of the art hospital. The young couple enjoyed their years in Denver where Mary gave birth to their first son.
In April 1973, nearing the end of his residency, 1st Lt Beck got orders to report to Hill Air Force Base at Ogden, Utah. At about the same time, he signed a one-year contract with the St. Cloud Medical Group. From Denver, the Becks moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota where he fulfilled fourteen weeks of his contract before moving to Utah.
The first step into active military service took 1st Lt Beck to Sheppard AFB at Witchita Falls, Texas for two weeks of orientation to Air Force standards and protocols. It was at Sheppard he was commissioned Captain Richard Beck. He also got his first military hair cut which included a bleeding “ear cut”! Mary remained in St. Cloud where she took a cab to the hospital to give birth to their second son. I’m sure that’s a familiar scenario to many military wives!
In September 1973, the growing Beck family moved to Utah. Their first home there was about 5 miles off base, in a motel at the base of the Wasatch Mountains. The scenery was great but as the only Internist on base, Capt Beck was on call 24/7 making life difficult for him and for Mary, who was often alone in a motel with a two year-old and a newborn. One night, when the base commander, a General, was in the emergency room needing attention and the Internist wasn’t available, the General was taken to the city hospital for treatment. The next day, a house on base was found for the Becks.
Again, Capt Beck was fortunate to work in a new hospital which was built during his first year on base. After the first year came his commission to Major Richard Beck. Hill AFB was a logistics base where supplies were shipped in, then sent off to Vietnam. No combat casualties were treated there. About 30% of his patients were on-base active duty and the other 70% were retired military personnel who lived in the area. Internists treat many elderly patients so even in private practice Dr. Beck served many veterans.
From Utah, it was back to St. Cloud in September 1975 to finish out his contract, and for the birth of their third son. The family was complete. From there they spent nineteen and a half years in Fergus Falls, MN and two years in Corvallis, OR. Then, returning to Minnesota, Dr. Beck practiced at Park Nicollet Clinic in Minneapolis for over 29 years until retiring the 8th of January this year.
Dr. Beck looks back fondly on his two years at Hill AFB. He says the best part was that it was a good training ground for a doctor fresh out of residency under the umbrella of Uncle Sam, on base housing, along with Base Exchange and Commissary. The Officer’s Club was always the best local restaurant.
They got to know a lot of good people there and appreciated the professionalism and friendship afforded them.
Following his father’s example, Dr. Richard Beck brought his passion for saving lives and pursuit of excellence to his service in the United States Air Force. Led into it by the Berry Plan, young Major Beck left Hill AFB for private practice with a sense of accomplishment and priceless experiences in medicine and life.
Dick has always been a go-to guy when our family needed kindness and strength. With humility and a caring heart, he shares his vast medical knowledge when needed. Nobody is perfect, but Richard Beck is perfectly one with us in love of God, family, and country.
