On April 18, over 50 Utah National Guard servicemen and women joined forces at Spanish Fork High School to show a 7-year-old boy that he has an army behind him.
Five short months ago, on December 14, Beckham Hatch’s parents were given the news that no parent should have to hear: that their child has an inoperable brain tumor. Beckham’s mom, Madison Hatch explained those moments to Serve Daily.
“We noticed that his eye was not tracking properly back in November, and a scan in December showed the tumor,” Madison said. “The tumor has been very challenging for our family – like our worst nightmare has happened. … Doctors can’t do surgery on this type of tumor because it’s located in the brain stem.”
Beckham’s type of tumor is DIPG, or Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, and is located in the pons of the brainstem. According to the Cleveland Clinic DIPG is a “high-grade malignant tumor that’s difficult to treat … especially in children.”
Even with science indicating a poor prognosis, Beckham’s mom said they are holding onto faith that their son will be OK.
“We have faith and hope we can beat it,” she said. “We will just keep fighting for him and with him! It means so much knowing that people take time out of their days to help this hard experience become easier for him.”
Making sure that Beckham knew that he had an army behind him was forefront in the mind of Sgt. Lunt who was one of many who worked to make Beckham feel special. Sgt. Lunt said that when the word was put out to give the 7-year-old a special Army day, troops from far and wide pulled out all the stops.
“The message was sent out to the 145th field artillery, and everyone showed up to show their support for Beckham,” Sgt. Lunt said. “I thought there was just going to be a small group of maybe 20 soldiers, but they slowly all started rolling in. The artillery brought a Humvee and then Master Sergeant Dave Sivas brought in a JLTV, which is a newer version of the Humvee. He also put a machine gun on top, and then they brought one of their RZR UTVs with a 240 Bravo machine gun on it. We had the Green Berets Special Forces in full armor escort him into the assembly, almost like bodyguards, and they presented him with a plaque.”
Sgt. Lunt further explained the event, adding that soldiers lined up and Beckham was able to call them all to attention.
“It was nothing short of amazing,” Sgt. Lunt said. “It was very humbling. We really wanted to show Beckham that he truly does have an army behind him and we’re all rooting for him and we all care for him.”
Madison said that seeing the support for her son lifted his spirits. She expressed gratitude for the Utah National Guard and Spanish Fork High School for showing Beckham and her family so much love.
“Beckham is very patriotic and loves shooting guns with me,” she said. “He has always talked about war and how he wants to protect his country. I’ve always talked about the military with him since he was little, and together we’ve studied (military) history. He thought it was awesome having military guys show up! It made him happy knowing how many people were there for him and a part of ‘Beckham’s army’ as we call it.”
Since his diagnosis, Beckham has received radiation treatments and travels to Denver once a month where he is receiving a clinical trial. The family posts updates on Beckham’s progress on a Gofundme where donations are also accepted. For more information or to donate, go to gofundme.com/f/help-support-beckhams-army.
