Veteran Served In Korean Conflict

AIR FORCE SOLDIER TRAVELED THE WORLD, RETIRED AFTER 10 YEARS

PRAIRIE GROVE — Bill Beaver was 20 when he joined the U.S. Air Force at the end of the year in 1950, one week before hewould have been drafted into the U.S. Army.

“I joined the air force rather than go into the army,” Beaver said.

Basic training for Beaver was begun at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and finished at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, S.C. He became an airplane mechanic, worked on F-84s until June 1951 when he joined the 136 Firebomber Wing at Langley Field, Va. From there he flew to Itazuke, Japan, where he became part of the U.S. force in the Korean Conflict.

The Korean Conflict was the first time the U.S. used jet fighters, according to the U.S. Air Force history. Although most combat missions in Korea were flown by planes with propellers, jets that rose to the edge of the stratosphere were introduced.

The life of an airman was as gritty as an infantry soldier, especially when maintainers, crews and pilots tried to get the job done at roughshod airfields in

the extremes of sweltering summer and frigid winter, stated the USAF history about the war that began in June 1950 when North Korean armed forces crossed the 38th parallel and launched an invasion into South Korea.

Enter young air force personnel like Beaver who helped keep U.S. pilots in the air, first flying from Japan to Korea and later from an air base on South Korean soil during the three-year Korean conflict.

When Beaver was sent to Japan it was due to an airbase not being completed yet in South Korea. “We flew missions out of Japan for three to four months.”

Beaver was transferred to logistics from mechanics.

“We hustled parts instead of worked on planes,” Beaver said, adding if the needed parts didn’t come in on time, the colonels would “throw a fit.

Parts for the planes would come in from a major parts depot in Tokyo. There could still be some warehousing problems.

“It was kind of crazy mixed up thinking but we had to do what we had to do,” Beaver said.

The Air Force troops finally made it to an air field in Taegu, S. Korea in July 1951.

“Planes were going back and forth every day, all day,” Beaver said. “There was already a large U.S. presence in South Korea by then.”

Beavers said flying in a cargo plane over Korea was “an experience in itself.”

“We had to fly over mountain peaks that were 10,000 to 20,000 feet high,” Beaver said. “The air currents over the mountains were swift and the planes would jump up and down.”

Beaver would hear artillery fire on the front line as he and his crew unloaded supplies. “We had to insure that our people got what they needed. It was a hair-raising time. We worked night and day to keep planes flying.”

After spending nine months in Korea, Beaver, ranked airman first class, left Korea not long before the Korean Armistice was signed in July 1953.

Beaver arrived home in San Francisco, had a 30 day rest and relaxation leave, then reported to Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, N.M.

There he continued to work in logistics with the title stock control technician. Also while he was there he met and married his wife, Margaret Lynn.

“I determined how much supply was needed and kept it on the base,” Beaver said.

Beaver attended Stock Level Control school at Frances E. Warren air base in Cheyenne, Wyo.

In 1954, he was discharged, then immediately re-enlisted for six years and was sent to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla. From there he was reassigned to Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, for a 16-week logistic supply course for depot level specialist. After completing the assignment, the returned to MacDill.

Beaver was deployed to Tripoli, Libya, to create a supply depot in order for the U.S. to supply its Middle East installations.

“The depot supported all F100 gunnaries in the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean, even European fighter pilots came to Libya for training,” Beaver said.

Beaver said there would be older ships in the sea and targets in the desert for pilot training. “The support training facility there was the only support for U.S. and European bases in the area.

Beaver took his wife, Margaret Lynn, and two daughters, Deborah, 2, and Sharon, 20 months, to Tripoli with him.

The Beavers lived in a four-apartment complex in downtown Tripoli before the base housing was completed. “It was pretty much third world controlled,” he said. “The complex we lived in was all military.”

When housing was completed they moved to the base.

“Everything was supplied to us through the base. If we went outside the base at the local market, we were told to bleach everything before eating any of the fruit or vegetables. There were four prices for everything — one price for Arabs, another for Italians, another for the British and the highest price was for Americans. And we used military script rather than money.”

Beaver said Americans had to deal with curfews and be careful where they went in Tripoli.

“It was an interested time we spent in Africa. There were problems but there was so much history — there were Roman ruins on either side of Tripoli.”

Beaver said one very strange thing he and others discovered happened in the desert.

“You could drive 20 miles into the Sahara Desert and stop where there is nothing to see but desert and suddenly Arabs would appear. You wouldn’t know from where or why, they were just there.”

Beaver and his family also traveled to Germany where he went to IBM school. They also went to France.

Beaver flew in military planes to an air base in Rome, also flew to Madrid, Spain. One trip he left the sky to ride a train from Berlin to Paris. He flew back to Triploi on a French airline.

Beaver said his first flight out of Tripoli was to Turkey. He also went to Athens, Greece.

“When in the military, you find yourself getting around,” Beaver said. “I got to see a lot of places.”

After being in Tripoli for 38 months, Beaver was reassigned to Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka, Kan., as logistic control technician. He remained there until his discharge in December 1960.

He gave up the military and travel after 10 years in the air force.

He and his family moved to Prairie Grove, where he has spent “most of his life” selfemployed as an accountant. He has since retired.

He and Lynn have six children, three sons and three daughters, and 13 grandchildren.