Joe Beatty

Well, it’s time to reveal our next Veteran of the Month! Retired Air Force veteran Joe Beatty. Joe grew up outside Center Point near the Cedar River and attended Palo High School. He graduated in 1950 and enlisted in the Air Force early in 1951 with the war raging in Korea. He started out as an admin troop but it didn’t take him long to find his passion. He applied to go to Navigator school and got his flight wings in 1954. He was assigned to fly the C-124 Globemaster II. He says he flew around the world on that airplane and it took him to so many places he never would have had a chance to see normally. One assignment was a tour at Tully Greenland. There he had a lot of time on his hands and started night school. After a tour at O’hare airport in Chicago training reservists on the C-124 and a stop at Stewart AFB NY at Headquarters, he finished his night school and applied for an engineering program that sent him to the University of Wyoming. After graduating there he was promoted to Major and shipped out to Vietnam in 1971. There he was flying the C-130 and performed more than 120 night combat missions!! This earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross and many other decorations. After 18 months in Vietnam he was stationed at Edwards AFB CA. There he was the chief engineer in charge of testing the new FB-111 fighter/bomber aircraft. He also had a chance to do some testing on the B-1A bomber before retiring in 1976 as a Lieutenant Colonel. After the Air Force he moved to Estes Colorado. There he said it was as close to heaven you can get on earth. After a short stay in Estes he took a job as an engineer at the University of Colorado St in Fort Collins. They had multiple wind tunnels there of different sizes that he worked with. One interesting thing he was involved in there was running the US Olympic Ski Team through the wind tunnel so they could work on aerodynamics and help with their speed when competing at the next Olympic Games. In 1988 he moved back to Center Point and in 1991 he became the Mayor, the Commander of the Legion and the head of the Lions Club! I’d say he had multiple full time jobs there. He performed all these duties until 1996. He was proud of his accomplishments as Mayor and felt that he definitely left the city a better place. Joe has one daughter that still lives in Colorado. Please help me thank Joe for his service to our country and to the city of Center Point!