Anthony G. Adesso dies; WWII hero who saved crew mates was 91

Seaman Anthony G. Adesso, who family members say escaped danger by gunning down six Japanese enemy fighter planes while helping save several comrades aboard a destroyer during World War II, has died. He was 91.

He was awarded 12 Battle Stars, eight Bronze Stars, a Gold Star and a Silver Star, family members said.

“He was a real war hero,” said Steven Backer, 61, of Bayport, Adesso’s friend and primary caregiver.

“There aren’t a lot of World War II veterans walking around and we just lost one.”

During the war, Adesso was a gunner’s mate stationed aboard the USS Riddle, a destroyer escort in the Pacific, between 1942 and 1946.

Family members paint a courageous scene one day when the destroyer was under attack from enemy kamikaze pilots intentionally trying to crash into the ship.

With many of his comrades fleeing for safety, Adesso, strapped into his harness, bravely shot down six enemy planes, daughter Susan Adesso of Bayport said.

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One of the downed planes dropped a 500-pound bomb, which blew through the edge of the ship without sinking it.

His family said perhaps it was fate that led Adesso to join the Navy.

At 17, he and roughly 20 friends gathered in a neighborhood park in Brooklyn, vowing to walk into the Army recruitment center the following day and enlist.

He was the only one to show up, so he changed his mind. He later enlisted in the Navy.

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Adesso was born Feb. 5, 1925, in Brooklyn. He was named after his father and often helped him bottle beer during Prohibition, family said.

As a child, Adesso was a member of the “knothole club,” watching Brooklyn Dodgers baseball games through a knothole in the fences surrounding Ebbets Field, his family said.

He also was a proficient fencer, who often told long stories about great military battles. So it may have been fitting he survived the deadliest war and saved ship mates during such a battle.

Adesso died Jan. 11 at home in Bayport from heart failure and complications of diabetes. He was later buried at Calverton National Cemetery.

He is survived by his wife, Martha Adesso, 84, of Medford and five daughters: Marthia Adesso of upstate Norwich, Nannette Fuller of Patchogue, Diane Adesso of Bayport, Susan Adesso of Bayport, and Deborah Caccazano of Center Moriches.