The trip went to Opalocka to work for Glenn Curtiss, world-famous aviation pioneer and developed of the Tri-City area, doing, as Rogerson describes it, "flight training, passenger hopping, photography -everything in the field of flying." And while Rogerson was enthusiastically plying his profession on Opalocka, Barbara, the young lady who was to become Mrs. Rogerson in 1928 was quietly living with her father, the late H.H. Kendall in Country Club Estates, later to be known as Miami Springs.      In 1928 Rogerson became chief pilot for Massachusetts Airways, and at the start of 1929 he joined the two-year old Pan American company, remaining with Pan American ever since, Air Transport Command service in the recent war being the only interruption. In this time, Rogerson notes, he has flown everything with wings - starting with tri-motor Fokker land planes, through sea planes and amphibians and back to land planes. And nost of those years, another well-known Springs resident, Ben Cooper, today a building contractor, was his trusted navigator.      During the war epoch under A.T.C., Rogerson bore the grace responsibility of ferrying many V.I.P.'s (Very Important Persons) and much heavy brass to various destinations. On one mission out of Washington, he flew Asst. Secretary of War John McCloy.      On another he flew Field Marshall Sir John Dill and his staff to Cairo and on arriving there was given the important assignment of flying General Eisenhower to Palestine. Once he had a whole plane load of generals: Stillwell, Chennault, Merrill, and Old, to ferry from Africa to Brazil.      According to Rogerson, none of these missions ruffled his normal calm What he does remember, however, with a slight shudder, is an occasion which might have had a highly disastrous ending. He was flying a 4-motored C-87, destination Natal, Brzail, from the African Gold Coast. It was laden with 11 ferry pilots and captured German high explosives, assigned to Aberdeen proving ground. While still over Africa, the #1 engine began losing oil, Rogerson recalls wryly, and had to be "feathered", to avoid the possibility of fire. The plane's course had to be changed and Rogerson took it down in Takoradi, Africa, for an engine change. Another time he had a similar experience in which two motors had to be "feathered', and oddly enough, on both occasions his co-pilot was a Hialeah resident, Kelvin Keith, currently a valued Pan American co-pilot.      Today Rogerson has the Miami to La Guaira run, carrying passengers, mail, and express to the Venezuelan city and return four times each month.      In-between times, exceedingly down to earth pursuits occupy Capt. Johnnie's time - his family of course, which now includes his wife, two sons, and two daughters, --civic affairs, and property interests. His two main occupations, however, are even more literal contacts with the earth. One is tending his yard at his Pincrest Dr. home. The other is playing gold at the Miami Springs golf course, which, if pressed, Rogerson will admit to going 'round in the low 70s.

 

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