29 Sep 2010 A WWII diary

When Ed Rossi grew up in the tiny community of Center Ridge, things were different. The oldest of eight children in a family of Italian immigrants, he was raised on a farm where his parents raised corn, cotton and dairy cows while struggling through the Great Depression.

A talented baseball player, Rossi played semi-professional ball after high school, touring the country and waiting on his big break as a major league pitcher. Unfortunately, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Rossi’s world changed. He heard the news on his grandfather’s radio.

Rossi enlisted in the Army Air Corps (now known as the United States Air Force) and began training to become a pilot. Soon, it was discovered that he lacked the depth perception to become a pilot and was instead assigned to become a gunner as part of a 10-man crew. He was assigned to the position of nose gunner and trained with his crew

in the mountains of Arizona while traveling to surrounding camps to play baseball. Eventually, Rossi was offered a chance to remain stateside during the war to play baseball and entertain the troops, but he decided to stay with his group and serve his country.

After completing advanced training, Rossi’s group traveled to Oahu, Hawaii, and became attached to the bombardment group dubbed “Kelley’s Kobras” under well-known Col. Laurence B. Kelley. It was on the way to Hawaii that his journal began, 8,000 feet above the Pacific and nearly 4,000 miles from home.

In the following year, Rossi’s journal entries painted an amazingly vivid portrait of what life was like during the good, bad and ugly times overseas during World War II. A portion of his first entry reads, “I always did want to see what the rest of the world looked like. I don’t enjoy going over 2,000 miles of water though.”

While training in Hawaii, Rossi joined a baseball team, eventually pitching a batting practice for the 7th AAF against baseball greats Joe Gordon, Red Ruffing and Walt Judnick. “It’s just like being with the Yankees here” he remarked in an Aug. 26, 1944, entry.

Soon, the casual baseball games in Hawaii became a distant memory, as Rossi and his group headed to the island of Angaur, where he spent his time overseas. Angaur sat

just six miles from the island of Pelilu – one of the longest and bloodiest battles in Pacific operations during World War II. Rossi and his group joined the fighting in the middle of this battle, where more than 1,200 Marines were killed and more than 5,200 were injured.

Throughout 40 missions and more than 360 combat hours, Rossi’s group dropped hundreds of bombs on enemy fighters and Rossi himself shot thousands of rounds of ammunition as a nose gunner, while dodging explosive shells known as flak shot by enemy anti-aircraft guns. During his 15th mission, Rossi’s plane was hit by flak just above his position and was then attacked by Japanese fighter planes. “Boy was that flak thick . . . you could have walked on it. One almost got me, my heart almost stopped.” Despite the damage and assault, his group completed the mission and returned to base safely and eventually completed 25 additional missions.

On April 11, 1945, Rossi flew his last mission. “Boy, it sure feels good not to have to go out and get shot at any more . . . I guess I can consider myself mighty lucky,” he wrote. For his heroism, he was presented with the Distinguished Flying Cross.

After he was discharged, Rossi returned to Center Ridge for a rest before heading to Kalamazoo, Mich. While overseas, he had received a verbal promise that he would be accepted to Western Michigan University because of his baseball background. That’s just what he did, graduating with a bachelor of science degree in education in 1950 before signing a professional baseball contract with the Boston Braves.

Unfortunately, an arm injury cut his baseball career short, but he went on to establish a successful insurance agency with his wife, Jean. The couple has five children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

While he traveled during World War II, Rossi’s diary entries always reflected a deep fondness for his home in Arkansas. Through his meticulous renderings of the battles in which he fought, he cemented a lasting legacy for those who knew him as a young man right here in the 501.

(Edward Rossi’s diary can be found in several libraries in the 501, including the library at the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton.)