281. Milton Pilot Commands Famous Black Cat Squadron 1943

A young Milton pilot flying out of Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides area was Lt. Commander Robert Adrian Rosasco. His family had strong connections in both Milton and Pensacola since the late 1800’s. The family originated in Genoa, Italy under their patriarch Paul Rosasco, a mariner who plied the trade routes from California to China. After the death of his wife, he returned to Genoa and raised his three sons William Sebastian, Albert T. and Peter Luis. When William and Albert grew up, they returned to America and accepted an invitation to visit an Italian lumber mill owner in Pensacola by the name of Giovanni Parodi. Giovanni offered to financially back the Rosasco brothers in the timber business that was now booming in northwest Florida. They accepted his entrepreneurial offer and in 1904 became the owners of “Rosasco Brothers-Pitch Pine Exporter.” Their business connections were expanded after William met and married Miss Adolphine Bronnun, daughter of a Danish immigrant who operated the Bagdad Sash and Door Company in Santa Rosa County.

As business boomed, the Rosasco boys decided to further expand their business back in Genoa. Again, they were so successful that Albert was sent there to manage the company dealings. Upon arrival, Adrian’s father Peter left Genoa for Pensacola to take Albert’s place at the home office. They set up the “Rosasco Brother’s Steamship Company” so they could ship Escambia’s abundant yellow pine lumber back to Genoa for a huge profit. Money flowed into the Rosasco coffers to the point that Albert built a huge mansion in Genoa and boasted that President Teddy Roosevelt once spent the night there.

Back home, William and Peter were still managing the Bay Point Mill in Bagdad, another acquiescent from the benevolent Giovanni Parodi along with 68,000 acres. As trade flourished, they purchased three more steamers by the names of the Unione, Escambia, and the Santa Rosa, which they used to ship manufactured goods from Genoa back to the US. Eventually, Peter became the president of the Bay Point Mill, while his two older brothers expanded into banking and development. Everything they touched was successful until 1914 with the outbreak of World War I. With their nation at war, the Italian authorities reacted by confiscating all of Albert’s ships to use as cargo vessels thus terminating their ability to ship their goods into or out of Italian ports. And to make matters worse a hurricane struck Pensacola in 1916 destroying huge tracts of standing timber, thus reducing lumber for exportation. But luckily, when the war was over there were plenty of surplus ships available on the market. One of the ships they purchased was the Florida that was seen tied up at the Pensacola Wharf for years.

William passed away in 1944, while his brother Albert died in Genoa and was buried there. Adrian’s father, Peter died in Pensacola in 1947 and was buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery. In his earlier years, Peter and Ermaldina raised their children in the Rosasco homestead on Blackwater River just south of today’s Interstate 10 and east of Robinson Point Road in what is known today as the Bay Pointe Plantation subdivision. In later years, they moved to Pensacola and built a $6,000 home at 113 West Strong Street where Peter took over the duties of Italian consul to Pensacola.

His son Adrian, was born at Bay Point in Bagdad in 1908 and graduated from St. Bernard High School in Cullman, Alabama in 1926. He entered the US Military Academy at Annapolis and graduated in the class of 1930. He would return to NAS Pensacola as a student aviator where he received his wings in May 1933. World War II found Adrian as a patrol plane instructor at NAS Jacksonville. In December 1942, he took command of the Navy’s patrol squadron VPB-44 stationed at Espiritu Santo in the South Pacific. The unit was flying the PBY-5 Catalina aircraft attached to the FAW-1 Patrol Wing. This unit was known as a “Black Cat” bombing squadron because they were painted all black. They operated mainly at night where they made sudden and vicious attacks on the enemy equipped with twin .30 caliber machine guns. Enemy shipping, submarines and shore installations never knew when the Black Cats would dive from the sky with bombs falling and machine guns blazing. They would then disappear just as quickly into the dark night. In March 1943, Rosasco flew missions all over the Solomons including Bougainville where Pensacolians stormed ashore in November, now a much safer landing thanks to Rosasco’s endeavors. He flew one bombing mission on the night of June 18, 1943 that resulted in him receiving the Air Medal for inflicting maximum damage on the enemy. On June 26, 1943, the squadron was transferred to the US for retraining and refitting along with a new commanding officer. Rosasco would finish the war as the commanding officer of Whiting Field just outside his hometown of Milton, Florida.

Adrian would retire from Whiting Field on October 1, 1946 at the rank of Rear Admiral and settled into life at home at 102 Point Place in Warrington, Florida. He and his wife Helen Cassiday had been married since March 4, 1934 and together they produced three children before he passed away on September 22, 1955. Helen would follow him to Barrancas Cemetery in 1971 where they both rest today.