Lt. Col. William R. Beuch United States Army Reserve

In rememberance of my father on Veterans Day

My dad was born in 1925 in Spokane Washington. He married my mom in 1944 which effectively ended his short football career at the University Washington. He was in night classes and was enrolled in ROTC when his country called him to duty. He shipped of to Korea as a Second Lieutenant in the infantry. Dad was in Korea a short time when a closed trench he was in took a direct hit from an enemy mortar. Dad had shrapnel all up his legs and into his back. Because it was a back injury they hung the stretcher upside down on the medivac chopper and took off. It was at this time that dad watched an enemy rifleman shoot the chopper down. It was not dad’s time to go. He received two purple hearts and went on to serve another 22 years on active duty.

In 1954 dad completed his courses in Romanian at the Army foreign language school and we moved to Frankfurt, Germany. Dad was stationed at Camp King but spent most his time elsewhere. We had a lot of stuff from Turkey so you can make some basic assumptions.

In 1958 we moved to Ft. Sill Oklahoma, where dad went to artillery school and then served as a battery commander. It was known as Air defense by then and included nuke capabilities.

In 1962 dad went to S. Vietnam with the first 200 American army advisors in country.
He earned a Bronze Star and the Air medal while there.

Dad came home in 1963 and the family was posted to Ft Riley, Kansas while dad went to Commanding General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas and finished earning his college degree at the University of Omaha. In 1964, after graduating second in his class at the Commanding General Staff College, we moved to Virginia and dad started to work at the Defense Intelligence Agency. For the rest of the war dad weekly and often daily met with the Joint Chiefs to brief them. When dad retired from the Army he went right back to work at the DIA. After eight or ten years there he retired again and went directly to work for SAIC.

When dad finally retired for good, he and my mom moved back to Oklahoma. They liked the people in Oklahoma and the cost of living made it a great place to retire. Two of my brothers lived in OK City at the time and that made it even better.

In 1994 my dad went into the hospital to have a kidney removed that he had injured playing football so long ago. While in the hospital he contracted a MRSA infection that succeeded in doing what the communist could not do for so many years. He rests in peace in the Old Post Cemetary at FT. Sill where some legendary native Americans, such as Quannah Parker and Geronimo had been interred. Geronimo’s grave was moved from Old Post out to the Wichita National Wildlife Range to prevent desecration by tourists.

My dad started his military career fighting the communists and lived to see the Berlin Wall come down. That’s a hell of a ride. I will always be proud of him and hope he would have been proud of me today.

God Bless you dad, and God bless all the Americans that have served our country, and God Bless The United States of America.

2009 100% Raw Federation Single Lift* World Championships!! November 7th and 8th

*This means that each type of lift is a championship contest. You still get three attempts at the lift.

Three of us from Fitness 19 in Manassas traveled to Norfolk Virginia for the event.
Mike Richards bench press and dead lift: open and 25-29 @ 198
Sid Zullinger bench press and dead lift: open @ 242
Ron Beuch (that’s me!) bench press and dead lift: 55-59 @275

All three of us lifted on Sunday the 8th. It was a little unusual. Usually the lighter weight classes say 198’s and 242’s will lift in the first session and the 275’s and the SHW will lift in the afternoon session. Because Mike was lifting 198 Sid and I went down for the technical meeting and the morning session. Much to our surprise there was only one session starting with four flights of bench press. The flights were not divided by age groups but by some formula known only by Paul Bossi. Mike was in the second flight opening fifth and Sid and I were in the third flight opening second.

I lifted off for Mike and he later lifted off for Sid and me. We all went 2 for 3 missing on our last lifts .I believe Mike scored gold for both the open and the 25-29 with a 347lb bench press, Sid scored 3rd in the open with a 363lb bench press. I scored gold with a 386lb world record bench press. I brought the 402 down a little low on my chest and could not get under it stalling at the transition.




386lb world record bench press


There were three flights of dead lifts after a flight of strict curlers. Paul Bossi wanted to finish with the big dead lifts and a cheering crowd. Sid and Mike were in the second flight and I was in the third flight with the big boys. Mike pulled 507 on his second lift for the gold in both the open and the 25-28. Sid opened with an easy 507, went to another easy lift of 546, then put it all on the line with a 567. He walked away with the Open Gold. The third flight was the last flight of the day. Ed, the guy lifting first was 60+ and opening with a world record. I of course am 59 with a birthday in two months. I was second and opening with a world record. The rest of the flight were 600lb and 700 lb dead lifters. Ed and I went 4 for 4, all world records, so he and I finished off the meet with my last world record dead lift of 540lbs as the last lift of the day. The crowd loved us and we loved them.

540lb world record dead lift