Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Ethiopia Mr. Karel Hejč, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to Ethiopia Mr. Jozef Cibula and representatives of diplomatic community including military attachés of the Czech Republic Col. Zdeněk Carda and of Great Britain Col. Mike Scott paid tribute to the memory of a Czechoslovak pilot and later a pilot of the Royal Air Force, who was forced out of Czechoslovakia after the communist putsch in February 1948 and spent last years of his active duty in service of the Emperor of Ethiopia. During the homage, Col. Zdeněk Carda outlined the personality of Col. Rosík.

Colonel Rosík, born in the village of Bzová near Uherské Hradiště in Czechoslovakia, fought on the battlefronts of the WW1 in newly constituted Czechoslovak Air Force. After graduating from the War University in Prague and pilot training, he was appointed in 1927 a field pilot as a Captain of Staff. In 1930’s, he has worked as military attaché at the Embassy of Czechoslovakia in Rome, Italy. After the outbreak of the WW2, he left the country occupied by Nazis and helped to organize the Czechoslovak resistance movement abroad, first in France and later, in 1940, in Great Britain, where he served in the Royal Air Force. After the WW2, he has worked once again as military attaché, this time in Berlin, Germany. As a consequence of the communist putsch in Czechoslovakia in 1948, he was removed from duty and forcibly retired. He did not accept the new reality and in September 1949 accepted the invitation of the Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie I. and became an advisor for the new-born Ethiopian aviation. On May 9^th, 1955, Col. Rosík deceased in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The inscription on his tombstone says: “Your merits for your homeland will never be forgotten. May the earth in exile lay lightly upon you”.

The personality of Col. Rosík will be remembered also in his native village of Bzová near Uherské Hradiště. His birth house will be decorated with a commemorative plate. “The revelation of the commemorative plate under the auspices of the President of the Zlín County will represent the evidence that the homeland of Col. Rosík did not forget about him,“ says dr. Ladislav Slámečka, member of the Czechoslovak Legionnaires.