85-year-old still fighting to help fellow veterans

RallyPoint Members one of the early Post back in 2016 that just got lost in a black hole, but a great inspirations story of an Airman that still helps veterans at the age of 85 - enjoy his story.

I can only hope that at 85 I'm still doing great things for my brothers and sisters! Woooha!

Preview....

Bernard “Bernie” Corona does not like to talk about himself.

But Corona agreed to an interview, hoping that sharing his experiences might spur others to help veterans.

That attitude — doing whatever it takes to help others — is what keeps Corona, 85, volunteering as a veterans’ advocate and driver for those who need a ride to medical appointments.

“I enjoy doing it,” said Corona, a Hartford native who spent 39 years in the military. “I know I’m helping somebody.”

A lifelong sports fan, Corona played varsity baseball as a catcher at Bulkeley High and with the Hartford Cubs, a team made up of teenagers formed in 1946. They racked up a winning record and claimed titles in the East Hartford Twilight League and Hartford playoffs. Corona was voted MVP in 1949, but the Cubs disbanded the following year, when most players left to fight in Korea.

In 1951 at age 20, he enlisted in the Air Force with six friends from Hartford.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” Corona said.

They took a train to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, which was crowded with recruits, and “that was the first time I ever lived in a tent,” Corona said.

He served in Germany and what was then French Morocco, where he again found himself living in a tent during construction of a new base. He returned home for a few months after his service ended before joining the Army Reserve full time in June 1955. He served until mandatory retirement at age 60 on Sept. 30, 1990.