Remembering a Fallen Coloradan on Veterans Day

On August 4, 1945, just four days before America dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima that ended World War II, Lieutenant Norman Becker sat down in the pilot's seat of his C-54 transport plane somewhere in the South Pacific. Though Becker was an experienced pilot, he would not return from that fateful flight. Later that day, Becker was reported as missing in action (MIA) and before the year was done, his family received word at their home at 422 South Gaylord Street that that the young pilot had been killed in action.

Becker's story came to us in the form of two yellowed newspaper clippings and a photo of the dashing pilot that were housed in a Ziploc bag that was tucked into a box of donated books. Whether Becker was forgotten by his surviving family or the items were simply lost is something we'll never know, but on the occasion of Veterans Day, we wanted to take a few moments to remember Lieutenant Becker, and all the men and women who have served in our country's armed forces. 

Remembering Lieutenant Becker

According to the newspaper articles that accompanied Becker's picture, Becker was a 1940 graduate of Denver's South High School. While that may well have been true, Becker's picture does not appear in the S.S. SoHiAn (South High's yearbook) in 1938, 1939 or 1940. 

Records from the 1930 census confirm that the Becker family did indeed live at the Gaylord Street address that was mentioned in the newspaper articles. Becker's father was the manager of a plumbing shop and he and his wife both moved to Denver from Wisconsin. Becker was the middle of three brothers. His oldest brother Lawrence served in the South Pacific Theater with the U.S. Army and his younger brother Floyd also served in the Navy.

Tracking down the dates of the articles that recorded Becker's death proved problematic as the clippings don't include a date. That makes it very difficult to find out exactly when Becker's parents received the terrible news about their son. (It's difficult, from this distance, to comprehend how their loss was compounded by the fact the Lt. Becker died just eight days before Japan's surrender ended World War II.)

The article does mention the fact that Becker enlisted in the Navy in 1942, and completed his flight training in May of 1943. He served as a flight instructor in Corpus Christi until May of 1945 when he shipped off to the South Pacific. It doesn't take too big a stretch of the imagination to picture Becker lining up to join the fight against the Axis powers in the chaos, excitement and fear of post-Pearl Harbor America.