Stanley Andrews (Anekstein), the son of Rivka and Yosef, was born on April 13th, 1923 in the Bronx in New York. When he was 18, he completed his studies at City College in New York with top grades, and discovered that he had talent for sports writing, and painting.
In World War II he was recruited into the U.S. Air Force and served for four years as a pilot on the Pacific Ocean battlefront. He reached the rank of captain and received several awards for distinguished service.
After the war he moved to Los Angeles in California and studied at the University Art School. Although he had not received a Jewish education, when he heard about Israel’s struggle for independence his Jewish heart was touched. He searched around, and found out how to volunteer for the Israel Air Force. His combat flights and his individual actions under difficult circumstances made a very important contribution to the struggle in the battles of June 1948.
In “Operation Yoav,” the operation to secure the route to the Negev in October 1948, he participated in a number of successful bomb sorties against the enemy. On October 20th , 1948, as an additional pilot to non-Jewish Canadian Leonard Fitchett, while making a low-level attack on the Egyptian fortress Iraq-el-Suweidan, their Bristol Beaufighter bomber aircraft was hit by heavy ground fire. All three airmen were killed, including the British-born navigator Dov Sugarman.
Following his death, Stanley Andrews (Anekstein) was awarded the rank of Flight Commander (Captain).
A plaque in his memory was erected at the Military Cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
Translated into English from the Yizkor website with additional information
provided by Joe Woolf.