Dusty Roads Passes with a Long Distinguished Legacy
San Francisco Raleigh “Dusty” Rhodes was a man who lived a long life, and also was one of the early leaders in the Navy Blue Angel flying team. He flew in two wars in combat, and was a prisoner of the Japanese in a prisoner of war camp.
Dusty Rhodes finally succumbed to lung cancer, ending a distinguished career and life, November 26, 2007. He was eighty-nine years old.
Mr. Rhodes flew in World War II, off the deck of the USS Enterprise. He flew fighter cover in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands in 1943, off Guadalcanal. In this battle he was shot down and captured by Japanese Forces, in October 1943.
For the next three years Mr. Rhodes was placed in a prisoner of war camp, where he was ravaged, starved and beaten. When the camp was liberated at the end of the war, Mr. Rhodes weighed eighty-eight pounds.
Dusty Rhodes died in San Jose, said his daughter Debra Rhodes.
While imprisoned Dusty had the dubious honor of being personally interrogated by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who had personally planned Pearl Harbor, the attack and most other of the major Japanese offensive operations of the time.
After returning from the prisoner of war camp, Dusty Rhodes joined the Blue Angels. This was in their early years of existence; they were in their second year when Mr. Rhodes joined the team.
Rhodes became the third leader of the precision flight team.
His three children, Scott Kimberly and Debra, His wife Pauline, and two stepsons and two grandchildren survive Rhodes.
