Evelyn McDaniel was born in the U.S.A. in 1912. Her husband Fred Dahms served as an aircraft mechanic with Lineas Areas de Panama (LAPSA) in support of Israel during the War of Independence, and in the ground crew at Ekron airbase.
Fred continued working for Al Schwimmer in the early days of the Israel Aircraft Industry in Israel, and she held various secretarial and administrative positions at that time. According to Evelyn, “Fred was very sympathetic to the Holocaust survivors. Even after he found out what Al Schwimmer was really doing, he stuck with it because he believed it was the right thing to do. I believe that most of us were aware we were participating in a history-making event – a biblical prediction coming true. This gave us a cause, a purpose, a motivation to do all we could to help.”
After their return to the U.S.A., Evelyn wrote a weekly column for a newspaper in Antelope Valley, CA. She published a book entitled “Goyim,” a tale of non-Jews who served in Israel’s War of Independence. An updated version of this book was published in 2005 entitled “Gutsy Guys and Rattletrap Planes.”
She received the “San Diego Book Award” for this publication.
In the preface of “Gutsy Guys” she writes: “This is the story of eight non-Jewish Americans who inadvertently became involved in a top-secret operation to smuggle airplanes out of the United States at a time when America had an embargo on exporting war materials to the Middle East.” The context is about Al Schwimmer’s efforts to acquire and ship three Constellations and a number of C-46s from the US to Israel by way of an airbase in Czechoslovakia. It was Fred Dahms’ task to remilitarize the aircraft and bring them to an airworthy level. Fred worked alongside Mike Ondra and ensured that the planes, which they flew, made it from Burbank to Tijuana, Nicaragua, Panama, Brazil, Dakar, Rome, and then to Zatek, Czechoslovakia. While Dahms and Ondra combated technical problems, Schwimmer and his group dealt with political hurdles along the route. Both Dahms and Ondra criticized the Israelis for purchasing Messerschmitts which, they argued, were suited for landing in grass rather than concrete, and whose struts were out of alignment. Their wives, initially left behind, received $200 a month from their husbands’ pay. Disputes arose about whether to insist that their husbands come home, or whether to join them in Europe and Israel. Evie was in the latter group.
In reaching her decision, Evie reports a dream: “I am part of a crowd of people arriving in the Promised Land and Fred, wearing a beard like Jesus, is holding out his hand.”
Source: American Veterans of Israel Newsletter: Fall 2006