Leon Frankel served as a pilot during World War II, flying 25 missions as a carrier-based naval aviator in a torpedo bomber in the Pacific. Leon was awarded the Navy Cross and Distinguished Flying Cross for his aerial bravery in sinking a Japanese cruiser and for engaging in battle with Japanese Zeros, thereby protecting his squadron commander, who was flying a damaged plane.
Leon Frankel was managing a car and truck sales lot in Minot when he got a call from New York early in 1948. “The caller said his name was Steve Schwartz. I didn’t believe it then, and I don’t believe it now. He seemed to know all about me, and over the years I’ve always wondered how he knew about me. He said I was needed by my people.” Steve Schwartz told Frankel that the fledgling State of Israel needed an air force and pilots. “In fact, I argued with my Jewish friends that the state that was being set up by the United Nations would never last, that it would have to be fought for. And that once they got it, they would have to fight to keep it.” And that is exactly what happened. Steve Schwartz made an impassioned plea. “He said they needed me desperately, and that Israel didn’t stand a chance without pilots. I finally asked him what kind of airplanes they had. He wouldn’t tell me, but he said they were at least as good as the enemy aircraft. That was the biggest lie imaginable.” Finally, Frankel agreed. “I just knew that I would never be able to live with myself if I didn’t do this. I said I would join up.”
In a short time Frankel had to get his affairs together, inform his partner that he was leaving for Israel, take a leave from the Naval reserve, and hardest of all, tell his mother.
That call was a game-changer in his life. He left Minot, ND, to volunteer for Israel’s first fighter squadron – the 101 Squadron – and to protect the newborn State against almost impossible odds in its War of Independence.
After attending an S-199 training course in Czechoslovakia under the tutelage of George Lichter, Frankel arrived in Israel in mid-June 1948. The second week in September saw the squadron increase its photo-recon flights in an S-199 specially modified with cameras for the task. Frankel flew one mission at about 12,000 feet over Jericho.
He was flying an Avia S-199 on October 16 when the fuel booster pump failed and the engine cut out. Frankel had to make an emergency landing, and chose an empty field in Israel in which to set down his aircraft. The belly-landing was successful and Frankel, unhurt, unbuckled his seat belts and abandoned the machine. Frankel crossed the field and met some Israeli troops who informed him that he had just walked through a minefield.
Although as physically as capable of flying as he’d been a few weeks earlier, the news that he had so randomly escaped serious injury or death in the walk away from his aircraft unnerved Frankel. He never flew again for Israel and soon returned to the US.
Click on link to Leon’s story in Minnesota Legionnaire October 2012
http://www.mnlegion.org/Frankel-October.pdf
Three You-Tube videos of Leon Frankel telling his Machal story:
1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJBoT92G2A8
2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhMBIlk03fE
3 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIiXqTyD2t8