The Story Of One Of The 91st SRS COs,
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| During my assignment as an Aircraft Commander with the 91st SRS, Yokota Air Base, Japan, from October 1953 to July of 1954, (then Lt. Colonel) Clarence Becker was our Squadron Commander during the latter half of our tour of duty. As stated in my earlier references to these experiences, Colonel Becker and our crew had minimal opportunities to really get acquainted and share any of our life stories. This just wasn’t the way classified reconnaissance relationships worked, for good reasons. In spite of this, it quickly became obvious that our commander was an officer of great integrity with a sincere concern for and dedication to his responsibilities and the men who served under his command.
Over the years, my curiosity to know more of and about him has remained with me. Now, through the interworkings of our recon web site, we are once again in touch and in the process of expanding the fabric of this history-sharing-and-preserving resource. The story contained here, is Clarence Becker’s contribution to our efforts to collect and preserve a series of stories of men who, at one time or another, were involved in reconnaissance work during WW II, the Korean War and early Cold War period. Clarence has another story recorded on this web site entitled “Then the Whiskey Started to Come in Handy, A story from the life of Clarence E. Becker”. This story was first documented for publication by the Oral History Department of the University of Nevada, Reno, through their publication of a book entitled “War Stories”. This book includes stories of 21 men and women who were very involved participants in WW II. I found each of these stories a compelling adventure through the eyes and hearts of the individuals involved. Permission was granted by the University of Nevada, Reno, through the cooperation and assistance of Dr. R. T. King and Mary A. Larson, UNR Oral History Program, for us to publish that Colonel Becker story The UNR staff has offered to sell our web site visitors their publication Click here to go to UNR information: Click here to go to Colonel Becker’s story Aircrews, operations, maintenance and support staff, assigned to the recon mission, served in this duty for varying lengths of time. In my own case, including training and actual operational flying, it involved a fifteen month period. In some cases, an individual might serve in varying recon-related duties for a period of many years. This is the case for Clarence Becker. The biographical notes and stories he shares with us here cover an extended period of time in a variety of theaters and levels of operational service and management. I am sure the reader will find his story most informative and interesting in every way it might be measured. Regarding the illustration credits: Unless special credit is given in the text describing an individual illustration, it may be assumed that the illustration came from the Clarence E. Becker collection. Chuck Stone Click here to go to the Table of Contents for this story. Or you may go to Home - Contact Us - Cold War Hist. - 91st SRS Hist. - Stardust 40 Mission Story |
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