Seventh of One Family Off to War
R. J. Beckers Even Send Pet Collie Into Armed Forces
When Lawrence Becker, Des Moines, Ia., the son of Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Becker, 760 South Grandview Avenue, Dubuque, reported for induction into the United States Army at Fort Des Moines Monday, he probably cinched the record of the largest number from one family in the service in Iowa for his mother and father, because Pvt. Lawrence is the seventh Becker to go into the armed forces.
Really, though, there are eight Beckers in the service, for the family collie dog, Ginger, was enlisted and accepted for Army duty in the Spring of last year. The other Beckers are widely scattered , three of them being overseas, and the others still in the United States.
Capt. Robert J. is a United States Army Air Forces pilot stationed “Somewhere in India”; Sgt. Howard, a motor vehicles inspector is with the Army “Somewhere in England”; and Ensign Virginia, a Navy Nurse, only recently arrived at Pearl Harbor, T.H., for duty.
Pvt. Willis is at State College, n. M., taking engineering; Cadet Charles who is taking pilot’s training at Fort Stockton, Calif., has already over 25 hours of solo work; and Johnnie, who tried to enlist in the Army and Navy, finally chose the Merchant Marine as his branch, and is now taking training at Sheepshead Bay, L. I.
To add to all this, Mrs. Becker is prominent in Red Cross Work in Dubuque, and was also one of the chairmen of the New Year’s open house for service men held at the Knights of Columbus Hall by the National Council of Catholic Women.
Source: Telegraph-Herald, Dubuque, Iowa, January 04, 1944
