Dick Rossi; helped save legacy of Flying Tigers

LOS ANGELES - Dick Rossi, the Flying Tigers pilot who downed more than six Japanese planes during World War II and later helped preserve the history of the world-famous volunteers, died April 17 at his home in Fallbrook, Calif. He was 92.

A native of Placerville, Calif., Mr. Rossi had left college in 1939, enlisted in the Navy, and was selected for flight training.

In the days before the United States entered World War II, Mr. Rossi learned of a secret volunteer group being formed by Claire Chennault, an Army Air Corps officer who had resigned his post to lead the effort. The volunteers would defend China against attacks by the Japanese.

Mr. Rossi resigned his Navy commission and signed up.

"When you're young, you're looking for adventure more than anything," Mr. Rossi told the San Diego Union Tribune in 1986.

In November 1941 Mr. Rossi and his squadron landed in Burma. In December, over Kunming, China, the site of devastating attacks by the Japanese, Mr. Rossi was in the thick of the battle.

"We landed in the midst of terrible damage, with bodies lying all around," Mr. Rossi told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. But the Flying Tigers shot down three enemy planes, a stunning turn for the Japanese pilots who until then had known only victory.

The Chinese began referring to the pilots as Flying Tigers. During their months of combat, the Flying Tigers shot down 296 Japanese planes.

By 1942, the US had entered the war and the Flying Tigers were disbanded. Mr. Rossi spent the rest of the war years working as a civilian pilot delivering supplies from India to China. He made 735 trips over the Himalayas.

In his 65 years as president of the Flying Tigers Association, Mr. Rossi organized reunions of the pilots and through speaking engagements helped spread awareness about the role of the Flying Tigers in history.