In The Service - Major Angela Gates Beck

Deployment To Iraq Pending For Moore Haven Officer

MOORE HAVEN, FL. -- Army Maj. Angela Gates Beck has been mobilized and activated at Fort McCoy, Sparta, Wis., for deployment overseas to a forward operating base in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  The soldier is a member of the 111th Multi- Functional Medical Battalion, San Antonio, Texas.

She is the daughter of Andy S. Gates of Riverside Drive S.W., Moore Haven, Fla., and Debbie K. Gates of Whispering Shores Drive, Fort Pierre, S.D. Her husband, Roger, is the son of Ken R. and Marilyn J. Beck of River Road, Pierre, S.D.
     
Operation Iraqi Freedom is the official name given to military operations involving members of the U.S. armed forces and coalition forces participating in efforts to free and secure Iraq.  Mission objectives focus on force protection, peacekeeping, stabilization, security and counter-insurgency operations as the Iraqi transitional governing bodies assume full sovereign powers to govern the peoples of Iraq.
    
Members from all branches of the U.S. military and multinational forces are also assisting in rebuilding Iraq's economic and governmental infrastructure, and training and preparing Iraqi military and security forces to assume full authority and responsibility in defending and preserving Iraq's sovereignty and independence as a democracy.
    
Maj. Gates Beck is a medical reformation systems officer with 17 years of military service. The Major graduated in 1987 from T. F. Riggs High School, Pierre, and received a bachelor's degree in 1992 from the University of Tampa, Fla.