thedrifter
05-22-08, 06:06 AM
MASSARO: Marine's devotion above and beyond
Steve Beck goes the extra mile again and again
By Gary Massaro
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A reporter on deadline once asked Lt. Col. Steve Beck if he had any training before being assigned to notify families that their child or husband or other loved one had been killed in the Iraq War.
If there had been the luxury of time, a few days to reflect, Beck could have answered better.
Maybe it was the death of his 3-year-old kid brother, killed by a young driver, that awoke compassion in Beck.
Or maybe it was being buried in a riverbank cave-in that gave him enough of a taste of death that he could deal with families grieving for one of their own.
Maybe it was having a stepfather he didn't get along with until both were mature enough to handle the relationship. That taught Beck to read people, watch their body language and facial expressions, heed the emotions just beneath the surface.
Beck, 43, was at the center of former Rocky Mountain News reporter Jim Sheeler's Pulitzer Prize-winning story, "Final Salute."
Beck, then a major, was the site commander for Marine Air Control Squadron 23 at Buckley Air Force Base.
Part of his duties included being the casualty assistance calls officer, a fancy title for a guy whose main job was to notify families that one of their own had been killed in combat.
The families would receive medals posthumously. Beck went the extra step, building cases to hold the medals.
He founded Remembering the Brave, a nonprofit, conducting ceremonies so that people wouldn't forget the ultimate sacrifice of those killed in the war.
In early May, he hosted an armed forces shooting match. Servicemen and women from around the nation came to shoot at targets 600 and 1,000 yards away.
Beck made the trophies, which are also memorials to fallen soldiers.
Beck was selected as a Jefferson Award winner, one of three in Colorado.
It's for the extra work, the finer touches he puts on just about everything he does on his own time and his own dime.
His dining room table was loaded with trophies he built for the shooting match.
"I had been in shooting matches in California," he said. "We were shooting for World War II trophies. I never knew any of the men. I never knew their stories."
A story goes with each trophy as well as a personal touch from Beck's memory.
Atop one honoring Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Burns is a crystal decanter and shot glass atop a tripod of K-bar knives.
"His favorite drink was Jagermeister," Beck said. "Kyle was a Marine's Marine."
The trophies are made of wood and steel, crystal and brass. What you don't see in each, or any of the medal boxes, is a piece of Beck's heart.
He has a military haircut modeled after a toothbrush, bristly on top, straight down the sides.
He grew up in Sand Springs, Okla. His mother and father divorced. She remarried. He didn't get along well with his stepfather.
"In my family, we did a lot of raising ourselves," he said.
When his little brother was killed, it took an ambulance 40 minutes to arrive from another town. So Beck's hometown residents pitched in and bought their own.
That same ambulance came to his rescue when the bank gave way and buried him, breaking his collarbone and left leg.
He healed, finished high school and went to college. After he graduated, he thought he'd go to medical school. Then the Persian Gulf War started. Beck enlisted. He was sent to Officer Candidate School. The war finished without Beck being in it.
He has since made the Marines a career. He is married and has four children. Along the way, he has earned the respect of a lot of people who may disagree with the war, but not his handling a hard duty.
"In this time still, unfortunately, there's fighting and people who do not like America and want us destroyed," Beck said.
"For us to grow into old age comfortably, there is a price that has to be paid for it. Young people stand up. They feel this country deserves that type of sacrifice. I want to keep that going in my life - to remember them and what they did for us."
massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271
The Jefferson Awards
The Rocky Mountain News is part of a national network of media sponsors of the Jefferson Awards.
* Awards founded: 1972, by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and others.
* Purpose: To recognize individuals who better their communities through volunteer service, exemplifying the ideals of Thomas Jefferson .
Colorado winners:
* Wednesday: Jessica Pearson
* Friday: Harry Vogler
Ellie
Steve Beck goes the extra mile again and again
By Gary Massaro
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A reporter on deadline once asked Lt. Col. Steve Beck if he had any training before being assigned to notify families that their child or husband or other loved one had been killed in the Iraq War.
If there had been the luxury of time, a few days to reflect, Beck could have answered better.
Maybe it was the death of his 3-year-old kid brother, killed by a young driver, that awoke compassion in Beck.
Or maybe it was being buried in a riverbank cave-in that gave him enough of a taste of death that he could deal with families grieving for one of their own.
Maybe it was having a stepfather he didn't get along with until both were mature enough to handle the relationship. That taught Beck to read people, watch their body language and facial expressions, heed the emotions just beneath the surface.
Beck, 43, was at the center of former Rocky Mountain News reporter Jim Sheeler's Pulitzer Prize-winning story, "Final Salute."
Beck, then a major, was the site commander for Marine Air Control Squadron 23 at Buckley Air Force Base.
Part of his duties included being the casualty assistance calls officer, a fancy title for a guy whose main job was to notify families that one of their own had been killed in combat.
The families would receive medals posthumously. Beck went the extra step, building cases to hold the medals.
He founded Remembering the Brave, a nonprofit, conducting ceremonies so that people wouldn't forget the ultimate sacrifice of those killed in the war.
In early May, he hosted an armed forces shooting match. Servicemen and women from around the nation came to shoot at targets 600 and 1,000 yards away.
Beck made the trophies, which are also memorials to fallen soldiers.
Beck was selected as a Jefferson Award winner, one of three in Colorado.
It's for the extra work, the finer touches he puts on just about everything he does on his own time and his own dime.
His dining room table was loaded with trophies he built for the shooting match.
"I had been in shooting matches in California," he said. "We were shooting for World War II trophies. I never knew any of the men. I never knew their stories."
A story goes with each trophy as well as a personal touch from Beck's memory.
Atop one honoring Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Burns is a crystal decanter and shot glass atop a tripod of K-bar knives.
"His favorite drink was Jagermeister," Beck said. "Kyle was a Marine's Marine."
The trophies are made of wood and steel, crystal and brass. What you don't see in each, or any of the medal boxes, is a piece of Beck's heart.
He has a military haircut modeled after a toothbrush, bristly on top, straight down the sides.
He grew up in Sand Springs, Okla. His mother and father divorced. She remarried. He didn't get along well with his stepfather.
"In my family, we did a lot of raising ourselves," he said.
When his little brother was killed, it took an ambulance 40 minutes to arrive from another town. So Beck's hometown residents pitched in and bought their own.
That same ambulance came to his rescue when the bank gave way and buried him, breaking his collarbone and left leg.
He healed, finished high school and went to college. After he graduated, he thought he'd go to medical school. Then the Persian Gulf War started. Beck enlisted. He was sent to Officer Candidate School. The war finished without Beck being in it.
He has since made the Marines a career. He is married and has four children. Along the way, he has earned the respect of a lot of people who may disagree with the war, but not his handling a hard duty.
"In this time still, unfortunately, there's fighting and people who do not like America and want us destroyed," Beck said.
"For us to grow into old age comfortably, there is a price that has to be paid for it. Young people stand up. They feel this country deserves that type of sacrifice. I want to keep that going in my life - to remember them and what they did for us."
massarog@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5271
The Jefferson Awards
The Rocky Mountain News is part of a national network of media sponsors of the Jefferson Awards.
* Awards founded: 1972, by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and others.
* Purpose: To recognize individuals who better their communities through volunteer service, exemplifying the ideals of Thomas Jefferson .
Colorado winners:
* Wednesday: Jessica Pearson
* Friday: Harry Vogler
Ellie