Staying Sharp and Being Active At 98 with Bill Baratta

Bill Baratta was born in Madura in the center of California on April 20, 1921. He recalls his youth when the town wasn’t as large, there was a single police officer, and the roads were dirt instead of asphalt. He contracted encephalitis in his freshman year and was lucky to survive.

[8:20] It took a long time for him to recover from the illness, but it was essentially the end of his formal education. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Bill and his friends volunteered for the Air Corps in order to contribute to the war effort and were enlisted. To get into the Corps, Bill had to lie about his prior illness, which came back to bite him a bit. Lucky for him, he’s charismatic.

[12:25] He found himself bouncing around 12 different bases all over the United States. A lesser known fact is that if you were a pilot in the Air Force and completed 25 missions you were sent home. Eventually his superiors agreed to send Bill to Colorado to learn armament, basically everything to do with the firepower on an airplane.

[16:00] Bill was chosen out of his class of 50 to go to Yale to learn how to become a technical officer and receive a commission, but because he wanted to fly so much he turned down the offer. Bill wanted to serve and no one was going to tell him otherwise.

[18:10] Times have changed. Bill remembers a time when we had a love for people and the sense of brotherhood serving together in the military.

[20:30] When the war ended, Bill was on an island in the Pacific and word spread very quickly. Instead of taking the more common route home, Bill was told to find his own way back to California. In many ways, his tour of service was anything but ordinary. He actually hitched a ride from a couple all the way from Sacramento.

[23:50] Bill married his first wife after returning from the war and was married to her for 16 years. He found out later that she was cheating on him, and at that point they separated. After separating from his first wife, Bill reconnected with another girl that he had known earlier. He ended up with her for the next 43 years. She became the love of his life.

[33:10] Bill learned that Donna had been following the news of his separation very closely. He managed to ask her out for dinner one night and that was when he got the clear signal that she was interested in a relationship. Years later, Donna told Bill that she had never stopped loving him even though he dumped her originally years before.

[37:30] One of the secrets to Bill’s longevity is never abusing alcohol and avoiding unnecessary medication. He has stayed active throughout the years. He keeps moving and makes sure that he eats a nutritious meal that he cooks himself every day.