I still have a framed document, decorated with the 1948 War of Liberation ribbon, sent to me by the South African Machal Association, dated June 26th, 1958. Next to it is a framed photograph of me with Ben-Gurion and Chaim Herzog, taken at the Rose Bowl stadium in California in 1951. They had come to America to accept four Super Constellation aircraft, donated by American Jews to Israel’s national airline, El Al.
I had left South Africa early in August, 1948, and spent a few weeks training at the Betar Camp at Villa Forragiano in Northern Italy. My group included my
brother Joe, Harold Cort, David Magid and Leon Rosen. We landed in Haifa on board the Caserta on September 12th, together with some 700 refugees.
The group joined the 88th Battalion of the 8th Armored Brigade. Our mortar company was attached to a unit that captured the town of Beersheba. After that, I served in the battle for the Negev for the duration of the war.
I then transferred to the Israel Air Force and was one of a group of 40 young men selected to attend a two-year course on airframes and engines at the Cal-Aero Technical College, situated in Glendale, California, where the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation had its base. It was during the time I spent there that I had the privilege of being photographed with the two Israeli dignitaries mentioned at the beginning of this memoir .
Prepared by Joe Woolf