Milton Maynard Beck (1917 - abt. 1943)

Born 3 Oct 1917 in Bashaw Township, Brown, Minnesota, United States

Died about 20 Nov 1943 at about age 26 in Tarawai Island, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea [uncertain]

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Corp. Milton Beck was Killed in Action during World War II.

Biography

Birth

Milton Maynard Beck was born on 3 October 1917 in Bashaw Township, Brown, Minnesota, United States to Arned Beck (1879-1923) and Emma Caroline Anderson (1886-1959). His mother married again after his father died to Charles Hall Stewart (1882-1962) from Scotland.

Siblings

1. Roy Eben Beck born 24 September 1905 in Brown County, Minnesota, USA. He died on 22 April 1970 in Brown County, Minnesota, USA.
2. Florence Mathilde Beck born on 19 September 1910 in Bashaw Township, Brown, Minnesota, USA.
3. Walter August Beck born 30 July 1912 in Brown County, Minnesota, USA.

Military Service

Service Number 346133

On 31 December 1941 in Minnesota, Milton enlisted in the United States Marine Corps to serve in World War II. The Marine Corps Muster Rolls show him in Boot Camp at Marine Corps Depot in San Diego, California at the rank of Private in January 1942. By July 1942, he had attained Private First Class and was with D Company, 2nd Amphibian Tractor Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, Marine Corps Base, San Diego, San Diego, California.

2nd Marine Divison Insignia

Marine Corps Muster Roll for November 1943 has Beck going to Samoa to join the A-1 Company and train on the newer LVT model.

LVT and Marines Landing.

Death and Burial

A friend of Corporal Beck states that he was killed when the LVT he was on was struck by a Japanese landmine off of Green Beach, Tarawa. The friend, Pvt. Harold B. Patch, from the 2nd Amtrac Battalion, was told by a third party while they were on Betio Island after the Battle of Tarawa that a shoe bearing Beck's name had been found with a foot still in it. Patch was certain that Beck had stayed behind in New Zealand. Supposedly, according to the testimony of the Private, Beck had been his crew chief in B Company, 2nd Amtrac Battalion in New Zealand before the Battle of Tarawa. Basically, Beck is Missing in Action and the actual location and circumstances of his death are unknown. If the foot found in the shoe that belonged to him was his, then he died when the Marines landed on the beaches of Tarawa on 20 November 1943.

Marines seek cover among the dead and wounded behind the sea wall on Red Beach 3, Tarawa.

If he stayed behind, what was someone doing with his shoe? Perhaps he was in Samoa. There was no body found other than the foot in the shoe. He is one of 514 American servicemen who remain unaccounted for from the Battle of Tarawa. Depending on the site you are reading, he died in Tarawa or New Zealand. This researcher believes he went in on D+1 (the second day) on Green Beach and a mine blew him up just as the Marine told Patch. If shoes were so hard to come by in New Zealand, a Marine Corporal such as Beck would not have given his away before the fight. Find A Grave: Memorial #56115045 is his memorial in the Courts of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii. There is another Find A Grave for him that is a memorial put in by his family in the cemetery where his mother was buried. Find A Grave: Memorial #54795198

Leon Uris wrote a poem about the Battle of Tarawa. The code name for Tarawa in World War II was Helen. The poem can be sung to the tune of Old Smokey:

BATTLE CRY

From out of New Zealand, the Gyrenes set sail,

to find an atoll where Japs got their mail.

On an Island called Helen, they staked out their claim;

and the Second Division won e'er lasting fame.

Dug deep in the coral, way under the sand,

five thousand Japs waited, for them to land.

The 2nd hit Blue Beach, they hit with a thud.

The 2nd hit Blue Beach, all covered with blood.

The 2nd hung on to the ground they had made.

All night they hid down 'neath the seawall and prayed.

The 6th they hit green beach and landed by noon.

They waded past buddies killed in the lagoon.

The 8th came ashore, boys, o'er buddies who'd paid.

And killed all the Japs for the misery they'd made.

A thousand white crosses to tell of their laurel.

A thousand Gyrenes lay asleep in the coral.

Oh come now you mothers, you sweethearts, you wives;

shed no tears for Gyrenes who laid down their dear lives.

On an island called Helen, they staked out their claim.

And the Second Division won e'er lasting fame.

Sources

• Find A Grave Index.
• American Battle Monuments Commission. World War I Listing; World War II Listing; Korean War Listing. American Battle Monuments Commission.
• National Archives and Records Administration. Register, World War II Dead Interred in American Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil and World War II and Korea Missing or Lost or Buried at Sea. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.
• U.S. Navy Casualties Books, 1776-1941 for Minnesota dead on page 2.
• State Summary of War Casualties from World War II for Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Personnel [Archival Research Catalog]; Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Record Group 24; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. It gives Milton's mother and Killed in Action.
• Jim Hildebrand's page on Beck Photo of Beck is available.
• 1920 United States Federal Census on 19 January in Bashaw, Brown, Minnesota. ^[1]
• 1930 United States Federal Census on 17 April in Springfield, Brown, Minnesota. Page 20A/Lines 2-4. ^[2]
• 1940 United States Federal Census on 2 April in Springfield, Brown, Minnesota. Page 1B/Lines 70-74. ^[3]

Footnotes

1. ↑ 1920: Beck, Arned 40, b. Minnesota of Swedish parents, farmer, head; Emma 36, b. MN of Swedish parents, wife; Roy E. 14, b. MN, farm labor, son; Florence 9, b. MN, daughter; Walter A. 7, b. MN, son; Milton M. 2 & 3 months, b. MN, son.
2. ↑ 1930: Stewart, Charles H. 32, b. Scotland of Scottish parents, age at first marriage 32, home is owned and valued at $2,000, Arrived in 1897, naturalized, burner at Brick and Tile Plant, head; Emma 46, age at first marriage 20, wife; Milton (now using stepfather's surname) 12, son.
3. ↑ 1940: Stewart, Charles H. 57, 2 years high school, kiln burner Brick & Tile Plant, head; Emma 55, wife; Beck, Milton 22, assistant butter maker at Cream and Butter Plant, 8th grade, stepson; Beck, Laverne 15, paper delivery, 8th grade, stepgrandson; Beck, Lloyd 13, 7th grade, stepgrandson.