Kenneth Beckman was born in August 1922 in Somerville, Massachusetts. He was raised in Northampton, Massachusetts where he has fond memories of his childhood and school. His father worked as an accountant for General Motors and his mother, while she had been to school to be a pianist, was a homemaker. His father had served in the Navy as a quartermaster during World War 1, but he had been accepted in the military only after he had changed his last name from the more German-seeming "Beckmann. He had one brother. He recalls that while growing up in the 1930s he didn't pay much attention to world events, and also that the family was impacted by the Great Depression. He spent about a year living with a great aunt while his father re-established himself. When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, he was stunned when he heard the news. It came as a complete surprise. Within six months, he had joined the Army Air Corps. He had always planned on a military career and he had always wanted to fly, so it was a natural choice. His father expected it given world events. At the time of his enlistment, he was too young to be accepted into flight school [Annotator's Note: he was 19 at the time]. Soon after, the minimum age was lowered and he joined as a cadet. He was commissioned as an officer and became a navigator within a year. His interest in navigation came in school because he was mathematically inclined and as a member of the flying club he found the topic of navigation very appealing. He enjoyed his flight training. He made many friends and felt well-prepared for combat. He had been selected to fly the B-17 Flying Fortress [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], an airplane he described as, "great…best airplane I've ever flown…" It was very rugged and could sustain lots of damage and still return home. He clearly remembered the first time he flew a B-17; it was the largest airplane and completely different than the smaller aircraft he had flown up to that time. He was interested in getting to combat.

Kenneth Beckman trained with one crew prior to being sent overseas, then joined another crew just prior to leaving. He stayed with that crew and left for England on 27 October 1943. He remembers the date clearly since he returned to the States on 27 October 1945. His initial passage was on the Queen Mary, a trip he describes as very crowded and characterized by very bad weather. Typically, five personnel were put up in a stateroom designed for two. He eventually made a second trip on the Queen Mary as he was returning for a second overseas tour, and this transit was much more enjoyable. When he arrived in England, he was assigned to a base that was near an army compound. He makes this observation based on the fact that he repeatedly heard guns and artillery being fired. After approximately two weeks, he was sent to Bovington, England, where he received further training on electronic equipment and procedures for combat. He found it exciting. After another two weeks, he left and shortly thereafter was assigned to the 305th Bombardment Group [Annotator's Note: 366th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] at an airfield near Northampton, England. There, each aircrew was assigned to a barracks of some 20 personnel based on their occupation or crew position. The bombardiers berthed with each other, as did pilots, navigators, and the enlisted crew members. He began flying operationally and very clearly remembers his first mission because it was flown with another, experienced crew. The target was the German submarine base at La Rochelle, France, and his plane had difficulty joining up with their group. He managed to direct the aircraft to a successful rendezvous with the rest of the group. He comments that this experienced crew likely had some reservations about flying with a junior navigator, but it worked out fine.

Kenneth Beckman's first mission [Annotator's Note: Beckman was a navigator in the 366th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] was on 5 December 1943 and he flew five more mission by year's end. In February 1944, his group participated in the "Big Week," where the goal was to attrite the Luftwaffe [Annotator's Note: German Air Force] as much as possible. During his discussion of this time, he mentions that prior to his arrival his group had been among those that bombed Schweinfurt, Germany, and 11 of 13 planes from the group had been shot down. He discusses then-Colonel Curtis LeMay's change of tactics as a result. Whereas before each group had proceeded to the target somewhat independently, the tactic shifted to each group forming up with the other groups and creating a large formation known as a "combat box." In this manner, each squadron and group could be mutually supportive in defending against German fighter planes. By this time, he had completed enough missions to be designated as a lead navigator; as such, he flew in the formation lead, so he often didn't see the aircraft being shot down behind him in the formation. He also comments that during his first tour, the enemy fighters were the biggest threat compared to antiaircraft artillery [Annotator's Note: a;so referred to as flak], and this had reversed by his second tour when there were far fewer fighters, but much more flak. He recounts that over a seven month period, only six of the original 20 crews that had been there when he arrived remained. The others had been shot down and killed or captured. [Annotator's Note: Beckman pauses during this discussion; he remarks that it has been a long time since he thought about this experience.] "It was very tough," he comments.

In his discussion of his first tour of duty, Kenneth Beckman shares an anecdote about his 25th mission. [Annotator's Note: During the early months of the air war in Europe, 25 missions completed a tour of duty.] The day's mission was to bomb an airfield outside of Brussels, Belgium; the result was that the bombs completely missed the target. Later, on his second tour of duty, his plane was on a mission to Cologne, Germany when they were severely damaged by flak [Annotator's Note: an abbreviation of the German Fliegerabwehrkanone, or "aircraft defense cannon"] and had two engines shot out. They eventually lost a third engine and had to set the plane down. It turned out that they were in the vicinity of Brussels at this time and were able to safely land the plane at the very airfield they had missed on the earlier mission. Beckman recounts that towards the end of this tour his crew had been assigned to bomb Berlin, Germany, one of the most heavily defended targets in the theater. Missions were originally scheduled on 3,4,6,8, and 9 March 1944, but weather precluded the first two dates. Finally, on 6 March, a formation of some 800 aircraft struck the aircraft factories in and around Berlin. He again comments on the intensity of flak during these missions. Having completed his first tour on 10 April 1944, he discusses being home in the United States when the Normandy landings took place. Upon his return to Europe for his second tour of duty, he was involved in missions flown in support of the Allied troops now on the European Continent hitting targets such as airfields and bridges. He also discusses bombing V-1 [Annotator's Note: the Vergeltungswaffe, or "Vengeance Weapon 1", was an unmanned cruise missile also known as the "buzz bomb"] launching sites in France. He comments that during his first tour of duty the primary threat was enemy fighter aircraft, in particular certain yellow-nosed Messerschmitts. He shares stories about the crew and while they may have been more relaxed on the ground, they were very businesslike in the air. He describes that once they had returned from a mission, they had all manner of means to relax like movies, food, and a relatively safe place to sleep. He opines that the real heroes of the war were the infantrymen, who faced death all the time and whose living conditions in general weren't nearly as comfortable.

Kenneth Beckman discusses the comparatively impersonal nature of combat losses in the air versus those faced by the infantry. He comments that it was easier to be somewhat disengaged because the loss was reflected by the presence of an empty bunk in the barracks rather than seeing a friend be wounded or killed in front of you. He reiterates his respect for the infantry in this light. Having completed his first 25-mission tour of duty, he felt it was a "natural thing to do" to volunteer for a second tour, which he did. He also felt that since he wanted to make the Air Force a career, a second tour of duty would offer a better opportunity to do so. After some leave in the United States, he returned to England in the summer of 1944. As a lead navigator, he only flew when his group was assigned as the lead for any given mission. He recounts that in the fall there was considerable discussion across the Air Force as to the viability of daylight bombing given the heavy losses that had been suffered. He offers a story about a particular pilot who had become a good friend and who had been assigned to transport a general officer back stateside. Since the pilot had limited experience with instrument flying, Beckman accompanied him on several training flights. When the day finally came for the actual mission, Beckman was called off the flight at the last minute. The plane crashed on takeoff, killing all aboard. [Annotator's Note: Beckman is very reflective as he describes this event; the pilot was one of his best friends.] When the war ended, much of the 8th Air Force began to prepare for participating in the war against Japan. His squadron [Annotator's Note: 366th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] and one other remained in England to carry out a then-top secret mission: Project Casey Jones, which was the photographic mapping of Europe and Africa. As he describes the training for, and execution of, these missions, he recounts his wartime experience with flak [Annotator's Note: an abbreviation from the German Fliegerabwehrkanone, "aircraft defense cannon"]. He very vividly remembers the cherry red flak bursts surrounded by black smoke and describes two instances where he was nearly struck by fragments. In the first one, a piece of flak ripped a seam along the entire length of his heavy sheepskin flying pants but he was untouched. In the second, a piece of flak knocked his navigation computer out of his hand but again he was unhurt. He also discusses the use of the airplane's bombsight as a tool to more accurately fly these mapping missions. On 25 July 1945 the squadron was sent to Saint-Trond, Belgium to continue its mapping flights. The squadron eventually redeployed to Germany in December and finished the project by the end of 1945, but Beckman was sent home in October.

Kenneth Beckman was sent back to the United States in October 1945. He describes his life as moving from one base to another, never spending much time in any one place. This frequent moving was due to the fact that he was often senior in rank to the officers for whom he was supposed to work. He outranked them. He went back to school to study aeronautical engineering, and spent the latter part of his career in research and development for the Air Force, but before that the Korean War took place. He had been in New Mexico when the war broke out. He was sent to Japan where he was assigned to the 315th Troop Carrier Command. Their mission was to ferry troops to and from Japan. He also recounts flying a small number of secret missions where they flew at night and dropped South Korean spies behind the lines of North Korea. As part of this discussion he reflects back to World War 2 and the fact that on several occasions he had been in "bad shape" after a particularly grueling mission because he was the only member of his crew who was married. He also briefly describes radar navigation in this segment. He eventually spent some five years in Japan, from 1951 to 1956, where he was joined by his wife and two children. He completed his tour as the Group Operations Officer.

At the conclusion of World War 2, Kenneth Beckman stayed in the Air Force and eventually wound up in Japan with his family. He describes his life there as much different than he had expected, but that the Japanese with whom he interacted were very polite and respectful. The war was never a topic of conversation. After he left Japan [Annotator's Note: in 1956], he was assigned to Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico [Annotator's Note: the site of the first atomic bomb test]. While at Holloman he worked on a missile program called Shrike Rascal, which was a program to develop a radio-controlled air-to-ground missile. He also worked on air-to-air missile programs, the work of which included operations with radio-controlled B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] used as aerial targets. In addition to his experience in the Korean War, he was assigned to the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. He worked in the research and development branch of the Air Force and his projects ranged from the Sidewinder air-to-air missile to the C-5 Galaxy transport plane. He discusses how the coming home experience changed from World War 2 to Vietnam; returning troops from World War 2 were hailed as heroes, those returning from Vietnam were treated as bums. During his reflection on these three conflicts, he discusses his most memorable experience in World War 2. On the mission where his flying gear was ripped by a piece of flak [Annotator's Note: discussed in detail in an earlier part of the interview], the plane was hit and the entire left wing was on fire. Ordinarily, when such a wing fire occurred there was only about ten seconds before the wing exploded, so he positioned himself in the forward hatch of the B-17 and was about to bail out when the fire extinguished itself. He has no idea why, but he was literally only a second or two from leaving the airplane. He comments that his wife told him that he had changed as a result of the war. Whereas he had been more rambunctious earlier, he was now very serious minded. He closes the interview describing that he wasn't anything special, just much luckier than those who didn't return. He feels that people today, especially the youth, need to be educated about the war so that they understand and appreciate the country in which they live.