C. Joseph Rosbert

A native of Philadelphia, Joe Rosbert was born on January 19, 1917. He earned a scholarship to Villanova University, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BS in Chemical Engineering.

Joe joined the Navy in 1938, and received his wings and Ensign commission in 1940. Relishing the adventurous idea of flying for the Chinese, Joe resigned his reserve commission to join the AVG. Assigned to the 1st Squadron, he quickly became an Ace with a tally of 6 kills and 1 probable. When the AVG disbanded on July 4, Joe stayed for two extra weeks helping Chennault during the transition period before joining CNAC to fly supplies over the “Hump”. On the very last of his 150 trips, his aircraft crashed high in the Himalayas and went missing for two months while Joe and his crew survived and trekked their way out of the mountains to safety, a whole story in itself.

After the war, Joe joined Bob Prescott and eight other AVG pilots to form National Skyways Freight Corporation, later renamed the Flying Tiger Line, in 1945. Prescott, raising money for his burgeoning airline, phoned Joe Rosbert in Hollywood, where he was acting as technical expert on a film called “Calcutta”. “Sure”, said Rosbert, ” I don’t have any $10,000 though. Tell you what, I’ll kick in $3,000 now and raise the rest” which he did

Rosbert quickly became National Skyways Freight Corporation’s first Superintendent of Operations (chief pilot) and was in the office on August 21st, 1945 monitoring the three initial flights of the fledgling airline. One of his more infamous flights, echoing his Himalaya crash, was the emergency landing of a Budd Conestoga on golf course during a storm on New Years Eve, 1945 during flight between Washington D.C. and Nashville in which he lost all of his radios. Three crew and four passengers walked away. According to airline lore, a member celebrating the holiday in the country club walked out to the crew with a drink in his hand, offered it to Joe, and said “Here ya go, you need this more than I do right now.”

In 1960, he and his wife opened a hotel on the resort island of Majorca. Returning to the U.S. in 1972, they settled down in North Carolina, where Joe published the “Flying Tigers Joe’s Adventure Story Cookbook” in 1985, and “The Pictorial History of Civil Air Transport” in 1990.

Rosbert died on, January 8, 2007 eleven days short of his 90th birthday.

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