American Pilot for Israeli Independence -the Story of Mitch Flint

The day after Israel’s 75 Independence Day, a large crowd gathered in the city of Herzliya for a special occasion. Guests including the mayor of Herzliya, an American movie producer, and the Chief Historian of the Israeli Air Force, came to commemorate the legacy of a triple war hero who piloted planes for two different countries and one of the most unique contributors to Israel’s independence and military might, Maj. Mitchel Flint.

Flint was born and raised to a Jewish family in Kansas City.n 1941, after the deadly Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Flint enlisted in the U.S. Navy, desperately wanting to be a fighter pilot like his father, who had flown for the American military during the First World War. After intense training, Mitch was assigned to fly the F6F Hellcat, a fighter plane in the U.S. Navy prepared to combat  the speedy A6M Zeros used by the Imperial Japanese Navy which were wreaking havoc on the Pacific front. Flint was awarded three Air Medals and eight Navy Unit Commendations for the dogfights and bombing mission he led during the Second World War.

After the war, Flint was ready to attend Law School at UC Berkeley, but a meeting with an Israeli envoy, looking for volunteer aviators to help the Israeli war efforts against the five invading Arab armies, made him change his course. As he later said in an interview: “The painful memory of the Holocaust was scorched in me and I felt I had to help Israel so I immediately said yes!”

However, Flint ran into setbacks from the outset. His mother, afraid for his life, opposed the idea wholeheartedly, and American laws prohibited citizens from fighting for a foreign nation Flint remained determined. He told his mother and government passport officials that he was going to attend the 1948 Olympic Games in London and explore Europe as a graduation gift to himself. To keep his ruse going, he wrote and sent postcards to relatives in England to occasionally mail off to his worrying mother.

To keep his cover, Flint arrived in England, and after a few stops throughout Europe, he ended up in Czechoslovakia. There, he and the other pilots trained in Avia S-199s, a plane previously used by the Nazis in WWII, assembled from the parts, flaps and wings left behind from the period during which they controlled the area. The planes were fixed with Czech help, Nazi swastikas were erased and replaced with the Star of David, and Flint and the other pilots went on their way to Israel to join the 101 Squadron, which was comprised mostly of international Jewish volunteers (named in Hebrew “Mahal”), joining the fight for Israeli independence.

The beginning was tough for Mitch's Squadron. Bullets would periodically — if not frequently — blow the blades off the propellers, leading to harrowing falls from sky, emergency landings and crashes. Even Mitch himself almost lost his life when a bomb he was carrying got stuck in the plane, and Mitch, unwilling to abandon the plane, decided to make an extremely dangerous landing, miraculously landing the plane unscathed.

(A group of international volunteers (Mahal), alongside Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion)

Flint flew on espionage and scouting missions, eventually being named executive officer of a dive-bombing team. “We pushed our planes to their limits,” he once told reporters, “and we were always scared that they would break down mid-air”. In all, Mitch flew dozens of missions, including some of the fledgling state’s most pivotal battles. He is even credited with leading the air mission that turned back the advancing forces of Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt’s future president. 

After the fights were over, and Israel marked an unthinkable victory against all surrounding armies, Mitch decided to stay in Israel for a while. At the state’s first Independence Day celebrations in 1949, he joined a 12-plane aerial demonstration led by Ezer Weizman, Israel’s future president; this aerial demonstration became an Israeli tradition on Independence Day and continues  to this day. As not to leave a formal record of his service in the IAF, Mitch did not receive the Major rank he was entitled to, but did get Israeli pilot wings bearing a red background, pointing to his excessive contribution in more than 50 aviation battles.

Upon his return to the US Flint re-enlisted in the U.S. army as a Control Officer in the Korean War, never telling his colleagues of his whereabouts since WWII. After the Korean War, Mitch officially retired from duty and finally earned his law degree from UCLA. He went on to set up a private practice in Hollywood, where he married his wife, Joyce. Together they had two sons, Mike and Guy. At the age of 90, he got a special visit from the then-IAF commander Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Eshel, who officially gave him his Major rank he was supposed to receive 64 years prior.

At the ceremony in Herzliya, Lt Col. Dan Barak, the IAF’s Chief Historian, spoke about the contribution of the volunteer pilots, and of Mitch in particular, to Israel’s victory in the Independence War: “At certain points during the war, 70% of the IAF aviators and technical personnel were international volunteers, even more than there were Israelis. The identity and nationality of the volunteers were diverse, and after the war, many of them chose to call Israel their home and continue to serve in the IAF, so much that until the late 1950,s, most IAF training was done in English. Mitch’s Squadron consisted of approx. 90% international volunteers, and in his service he took part in some of the most important air battles of the war, making major contributions to the Israeli victory”.

Today, his son Mike Flint, who grew up knowing and admiring his father’s heroism, is working to preserve the memory of his father and of the other volunteer pilots who joined the battle for Israeli independence. Together with Robert Gandt and Captain (res.) Ilan Frank, he wrote the book “Angels In The Sky”, and produced a film of the same name, both detailing the unique life stories of the pilots who decided to leave their comfort and risk their lives for the ideal of an independent Israel.

In an interview in the ceremony in Herzliya, where a roundabout was named after his father and the other volunteer pilots, Mike told us: “I was fortunate enough to learn my father’s story and meet many of the people my father had served and interacted with, like famed pilots Ezer Wiezman and Abie Nathan, and former prime minister David Ben-Gurion. I believe that if you memorialize people, memorialize their name and actions, their story will never be forgotten, when we’re gone there will still be people coming here and knowing that without these guys there wouldn’t be the State of Israel. In my eyes, the volunteer pilots, and my dad in particular, are like the Macabians, as experienced aviators, they had an unique set of skills, and they chose to volunteer in a time where desperately needed”.