S1c George Richard Beck

George Richard Beck was born March 31, 1918, in Pitcher, Oklahoma. His father, John Beck, was a carpenter and his mother, Jane Stafford Beck, a homemaker. The family included about eight other children.

By 1920 the Becks had moved to Denver and by 1930 to Los Angeles.

Young George had a misadventure in 1929 when he ran away from home and stole a vehicle. He received two years’ probation.

The spring 1940 Census said George Beck had completed one year of high school but was no longer enrolled. He worked in 1939 as a truck driver but reported no income. Public records do not indicate the dates, but at some point he also served at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Lompoc, California. The CCC was a Depression-era jobs program for young men.

Mr. Beck enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 6, 1940. He was a seaman first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was badly burned in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. He was taken to the U.S.S. Solace, a nearby hospital ship, but died three days later. Mr. Beck is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.

Sources: military interment record; Census; Navy enlistment records and muster roll.  This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.