Lt. Col. Tony Bevacqua started flying top-secret missions for the U.S. Air Force, about the same time Chevy was on a secret mission of its own developing a new sports car known as the Corvette.
Nearly 70 years after joining the military in 1952, Bevacqua recently decided to get ready for his upcoming 90th birthday by purchasing one of the most popular high-speed vehicles on the market today, the 2022 Corvette.
He’s no stranger to Corvettes, though.
“I’ve had a Corvette since 1976, at least one,” Bevacqua tells Fox40 News. “I’ve had up to three at one time and at first, for several years, I was strictly into the ’63 to ’67 series.”
The veteran took delivery of his 2022 Arctic White coupe this week at Wheeler Chevrolet in Yuba City, California, and the dealership’s top brass praised Bevacqua for his long years of service to his country.
“This is the very first 2022 C-8 that we are delivering; they’re very hard to get,” Wheeler Chevrolet general sales manager Jay Park said. “I read an article about a 95-year-old in Kentucky receiving his Corvette as a special occasion and I thought, ‘Why not Tony? He’s a very good supporter of the community. He does a lot for Beale Air Force Base and a lot for the veterans.”
Indeed, Bevacqua started serving his country in 1952 during the Korean War.
“They called everyone together for an announcement and the announcement was the Air Force wants and needs pilots and navigators, minimum requirement high school grad, anybody interested?” he recalled.
He enthusiastically answered that call to serve his country, beginning his gunnery training with the Republic F-84 Thunderjet at Turner Air Force Base in Georgia.
That led to a top-secret mission alongside the CIA as he would become the youngest pilot ever to fly a Lockheed U-2 spy plane, a high-altitude surveillance and reconnaissance jet.
He trained for the mission at the infamous Area 51 in the Nevada desert but says he knows nothing of the long-rumored aliens allegedly kept there. “Not with me, not a sign of it,” he said. “I have no reason to believe it.”
Over a nine-year period, Bevacqua would go on to fly several missions in U-2s over Vietnam and Cuba, then moved on to pilot the world’s fastest stealth aircraft, the SR-71 Blackbird, out of Beale Air Force Base in northern California.
“The wing commander came up to me as I was leaving and said, ‘Hey, you interested in flying SR-71s?’ Hell yes,” Bevacqua said.
The courageous veteran is a member of the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame, honored for his role in the highly classified CIA U-2 project and his other military service.
We have to admit he looks pretty comfortable sitting behind the wheel of that shiny new Corvette Stingray and it’s no secret that we wish him the best as he gets ready for that impending 90th birthday!
Source:
fox40.com
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I WONDER IF HE HAD TO PAY OVER STICKER FOR HIS CAR ????????
@ Bob, The headline reads “GIFTED”. To me that sounds like it was a gift from the dealership to honor Mr.Bevacqua for his years of military service ?
Very nice gift, and apparently very well-deserved!
I have heard there is a dealership somewhere in Ohio that would let him try to trade his retirement for a “chance” to get a Z06.
@Doug: He should tell that dealer, “Call me when the first one comes in and we’ll talk”
@Ronnie: Agreed, Sir!
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