Group 1 member's volunteerism honored

By Maj. DOUGLAS E. JESSMER
Florida Wing Director of Public Affairs

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla., April 29, 2010: One of Florida Wing’s own was honored April 29 as one of Eglin Air Force Base’s top volunteers.

Maj. Gary Cornell was one of four presented the base’s Volunteer Excellence Award in an April 29 ceremony. His service saved the base and the Fort Walton Beach community more than $60,000, according to his nomination.

He dedicated about 1,400 hours to the Air Force Armament Museum’s aircraft restoration staff and another 1,000 hours to the Fort Walton Beach Emerald Coast Science Center.

Cornell, characterized by his CAP colleagues as a humble man, said he enjoys volunteering.

"I enjoy everything I am doing," he said. "It's a lot of fun and it keeps me out of trouble."

Cornell is the inspector general for Florida Wing’s Group 1, which covers the far western counties of Florida. He’s been a CAP member since 1982.

The aerospace education officer for Group 1, Capt. Pam Becker, noted that Cornell and the other three finalists were presented a certificate and pin. Every nominee was presented a plaque.

While volunteering at the armament museum, Cornell helped the museum staff with upkeep, maintenance and restoration of numerous outdoor aircraft displays.

“This is a critical and manpower-extensive process,” the nomination reads, “due in part to Florida’s extremely harsh conditions, making the museum the most corrosive and destructive environmental field museum in the United States.”

He spearheaded restoration of the museum’s T-33A Shooting Star “Thunderbird” and F-84 Thunderstreak, but his greatest ongoing project is the complete interior restoration of the museum’s prized AC-130 “First Lady” gunship – the Air Force’s first production model C-130.

Cornell has put in more than 700 hours to completely restore the AC-130’s interior after years of water damage, black mold, severe corrosion and deterioration. As a result, the plane looks better than it did on active duty, according to the plane’s last pilot, who flew it into retirement in 1995.

He was also instrumental in design and execution of the museum’s Civil Air Patrol exhibit. But his CAP service includes flying fire watch missions across the Florida panhandle, ensuring that almost 750 square miles is free of fire hazards. Cornell has also flown low-level missions at nearby Hurlburt Field to ensure no flight obstructions.

More than 500 hours of service over the past 4 1/2 years has been given to the science center, where he helped ensure exhibits were operational – he led a major repair and upgrade project on the center’s aircraft wind tunnel exhibit. 

Civil Air Patrol, the uniformed, all-volunteer civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 56,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 90 lives in fiscal year 2008. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the nearly 22,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America since 1941. For more information, please contact the Florida Wing Public Affairs and Marketing Directorate.