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Lynn Beens enlisted in the U.S. Air Force Reserve to attend Officer Training School on June 18, 1968, and entered active duty for OTS on August 8, 1968. He completed OTS and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force on November 6, 1968, and then attended Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance AFB, Oklahoma, from December 1968 to December 1969. Lieutenant Beens then completed Undergraduate Navigator Training and was awarded his navigator wings at Mather AFB, California, in September 1970, followed by Navigator/Bombardier training and B-52 Stratofortress Combat Crew Training from September 1970 to August 1971. His first assignment was as a B-52 navigator with the 325th Bomb Squadron at Fairchild AFB, Washington, from August 1971 to April 1972, and then deployed to Southeast Asia from April 1972 until he was forced to eject over North Vietnam and was taken as a Prisoner of War on December 21, 1972.

Captain Beens was released during Operation Homecoming on March 29, 1973, and was then briefly hospitalized to recover from his injuries at March AFB, California. His next assignment was as an instructor navigator with the 449th Flying Training Squadron at Mather AFB from August 1973 to July 1977, followed by service as an instructor radar navigator, T-10 Simulator Section Commander, and Wing Missile Officer with the 92nd Bomb Wing at Fairchild AFB, Washington, from November 1977 to June 1984. His final assignment was as a B-52 radar navigator, as an instructor radar navigator, as Wing Missile Officer, and finally as Chief of the Strategic Mission Data Preparation System Section with the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, from July 1984 until his retirement from the Air Force on October 1, 1989.
- Distinguished Flying Cross
- Bronze Star
- Prisoner of War Medal