To his fans, he was known as Pee Wee Herman..A quirky, talented comedian, who made us laugh through his movies and his television show, Pee Wee’s Playhouse..Paul Reubens, who played the part of Pee Wee, died this week at age 70 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after a long battle with cancer..But did you also know, his father, Milton Rubenfeld, was a Second World War hero and one of the founders of the Israeli Air Force?.According to a report in Military.com, Reubens' father was the owner of a lamp store in Sarasota, FLA, when baby Paul was born in 1952. But, before World War II, Rubenfeld taught aerial acrobatics to would-be pilots. When Britain declared war on Nazi Germany, he went overseas and joined the Royal Air Force, as the US had not yet entered the conflict..After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he would join the US Army Air Forces..While in an American uniform, Rubenfeld wasn't flying aerial combat missions, as he'd done during the Battle of Britain..He instead flew with the USAAF Air Transport Command, ferrying planes and transporting people and materiel to and from the US..When the war ended, Rubenfeld might have gone home to his native New York..Instead, he was approached in February, 1948, by representatives of Haganah, a paramilitary group fighting for a Jewish state in Palestine..As Israel announced its independence, five Arab armies launched a ground invasion of the infant nation..Israel would reach out to all top American Jewish pilots to help them form an “Israeli Air Force” (IAF), and Rubenfeld fit the bill.. Avia S-199Based on the famous Messerschmidt Bf-109, the Czech-built Avia S-199 was among the first aircraft in the Israeli Air Force. .He began ferrying planes to Israel in 1948. That same year, he started training in Czechoslovakia on the Avia S-199, a fighter designed from the Messerschmitt Bf 109..Only five of the eight volunteer aviators recruited by the Haganah would be able to fly Israel's four Avias in combat and together they would be the entirety of Israel's first Air Force..While the volunteers were still in training, Egyptian bombers hit Tel Aviv's central bus terminal, prompting the pilots to forego the rest of their instruction, which included air-to-ground combat..They decided to take a big gamble — they would practice gunnery on real targets!.Rubenfeld was forced to sit out their first mission on May 29, 1948, as Israel simply didn't have another plane for him to fly. His wingmen flew a strafing mission against an Egyptian force headed for Tel Aviv..Since the Arabs had no idea the Haganah had an air force, they were completely surprised by the appearance of four enemy aircraft. But the Israelis would lose two aircraft in the fighting..Rubenfeld took off on his first mission from Israel's Ekron Air Base on May 30, bombing and strafing an Iraqi armoured column, with he and Ezer Weizman flying the only two functioning aircraft left..Weizman would later be appointed chief of military operations for the IDF (1966) and later became the seventh president of Israel (1993–2000.).Rubenfeld was hit by Iraqi anti-aircraft fire and forced to bail out over the Mediterranean Sea. His chute did not open correctly and he suffered some injuries in the fall..But as he swam to shore, Israeli farmers began to shoot, thinking him an Arab pilot..As the legend goes Rubenfeld, who knew no Hebrew, to prove he was not the enemy, improvised, shouting, “Shabbos, gefilte fish! Shabbos, gefilte fish!”.He returned to America, fathering three children, one of whom was Paul Reubens. Reubens even cast his father as an extra, earning Rubenfeld, along with his military accolades, his very own IMDB page.. Pee Wee HermanPee Wee Herman .As Reubens attended Sarasota High, his father owned a Lincoln-Mercury dealership. Additionally, he operated the Lamplighter Shop and the Statue Place in Sarasota and was a member of American Veterans of Israel.."My father didn't like to talk about his many accomplishments," Reubens told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune after his father’s death. "In 1948, he and a small group of Americans helped establish the state of Israel and form the Israeli Air Force..“Israel honoured him for his heroism and leadership and his plane was preserved and displayed outside the airport in Tel Aviv with a plaque bearing his name.".Milton Rubenfeld died in Sarasota, FLA, in 2004 at age 84. Like his son, he also died of cancer.
