Fort Hood formally honors Beck, Mills Posted On: Tuesday, Jun. 30 2009 05:29 AM By Amanda Kim Stairrett
Killeen Daily Herald

FORT HOOD – The post honored "two giants" Monday as its main gate and road were rededicated in honor of Bernice Beck and Tommy Joe Mills.

Work to rename the Fort Hood Main Gate and Hood Road after the two began in summer 2008. Signs indicating the changes were installed later that year.

Families and friends of Beck and Mills gathered near the Martin Leath Visitors Center Monday for a formal rededication ceremony.

While the two were giants in Central Texas, said U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, they were more importantly two giants for American soldiers.

Serving the Fort Hood community was Mills' hobby, reads an inscription on the plaque outside the visitors center.

"His dedicated efforts significantly enhanced the quality of life for our soldiers and their families," it went on to read.

There wasn't anything Beck wouldn't do for a soldier at the individual and community levels, his plaque read.

"He loved nothing more than to help a soldier," it continued.

The men, actively involved in the community as businessmen and civic leaders, are credited with many of the changes and improvements that developed at Fort Hood and the area, including the regional airport, III Corps headquarters, barracks, Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center and the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery.

Their fingerprints are on everything that happened on the installation in the last 30 to 40 years, said U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco.

If not for Beck and Mills, Fort Hood would not be the "Great Place," he said.

It's all about vision, said Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, III Corps and Fort Hood commander, and Beck and Mills were men of vision. Every Fort Hood soldier and family member is touched by the work Beck and Mills did for the post.

Mills was always fighting for the betterment of soldiers, said his son, Billy Mills.

"Generations to come will pause (at the visitors center) … and know the contributions of men of vision," Lynch said.

Beck died May 9, 2003, in Houston at 80. Mills died May 24, 2008, after a long battle with cancer. He was 78.

Colleen Beck talked of her father's vision, tenacity and energy, adding that one of his common sayings was, "Get with the program." It meant, "Don't fight it. Just get with it and get it done," she said, encouraging leaders to do just that to make Fort Hood not just the great place, but the "fabulous great place."

Beck and Mills were inseparable, Edwards said, bound together by their love of Fort Hood soldiers and families.

With Monday's rededication, the two are forever linked in spirit, just as they were linked in life, he added.

Contact Amanda Kim Stairrett at astair@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7547.