This is the text from the printed version.
The true story of a man who followed his heart
and helped to save a country...
A Book, Documentary, and Feature Film
Based on the Life Experiences of
Captain Lou Lenart (USMC, Ret.)
Lorin Roche, Ph.D.
Camille Maurine
PO Box 9325
Marina del Rey, CA 90295
310 821-0620
The Flight of Angels Project concerns the miraculous survival of Israel in the first few weeks of her existence in May 1948. The focus is on a group of four young pilots an American, a South African, and two Israelis who spread their wings over the country and held off the Army of Egypt.
This is a stunning true story that educates as it inspires. It has the possibility to go out into the world and touch hearts. On the surface it is a classic Mission Impossible thriller, full of action and adventure. More deeply, it is a story of what can happen when you follow your heart and learn to see with your heart, to intuit your way around obstacles and accomplish your mission in spite of impossible odds. The background of the story is the Casablanca-like milieu of Rome and Tel Aviv in 1948, with stateless and undocumented refugees from the Nazis trying to find a home.
We see three vehicles for telling this story:
A narrative nonfiction book, which will read like a novel;
A documentary film combining interviews with historical footage;
And perhaps, a feature film.
Plot: A ragtag group of young pilots led by Lou Lenart take on the Arab Empire and win.
Synopsis: Hollywood, 1948. CAPTAIN LOU LENART is a lean and muscular 26-year-old Marine. During World War II, Lou miraculously survived the crash of his fighter plane, and now is in awe and gratitude just to be alive. Every day he asks, Okay, World, here I am. What do you want from me?
Now he is out of the service and having the time of his life, enjoying the California sun and dating actresses. But a series of news stories is making Lous heart ache: the UN announces that in 5 months, on May 15, it will recognize Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people. Then Azzam Pasha, the Secretary-General of the Arab League, announces a war of extermination against the Jews. Military experts are saying that Israel will last at most two weeks, because it has no army and no air force, while the Arabs have been fully supplied by the British with tanks, artillery, armored cars, and warplanes.
Lou learns that his Hungarian grandmother was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz. As he grieves over her fate, he starts to become aware that thousands of devastated Jewish survivors and orphaned children are trying to get to Israel, because no other country will take them in.
Lou can see these refugees, he sees them in his heart when he wakes up in the morning, and he sees them when he walks on the beach. And he knows that he has to help, no matter how impossible the odds.
As a fighter pilot, his instinct is to get a squadron together and fly in Israels defense. Through underground channels he makes contact with the Haganah, the Israeli secret service, and meets mastermind AL SCHWIMMER. With Als mentoring, under the guise of starting an airline, Lou buys an old C-46 cargo plane and flies first to New Jersey, then Italy, then Israel. Along the way he meets other young pilots, and together they form a brotherhood devoted to creating an air force for Israel. They are opposed by every nation on earth there is a worldwide embargo against weapons for Israel.
In New York the team gathers at Hotel Fourteen, at 14 East 60th Street. The Haganah, in its wisdom, is using it as headquarters. Halfway between Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue, Hotel Fourteen is home to many worlds. Above ground, it is a stately residential hotel, with old ladies of mysterious European origins and a motley assortment of gentlemen. In its basement is the Copacabana, the most glamorous night club in the world. Every night at the Copa, there are shows by the legendary performers of the day Count Basie, Abbot and Costello, Cab Calloway, Carmen Miranda, Desi Arnez, Jimmy Durante, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The Copacabana is also the favorite watering hole of the Jewish Mafia, Meyer Lanksys people, who assist and protect the pilots as they get their planes ready for the flight over the Atlantic to Italy. Secret agents, wise guys, and long-legged dancers pass Lou and the other pilots in the hallways. Life is good.
The pilots are being hounded by the FBI, who are trying to enforce the arms embargo against Israel. The United States does not want to see any weapons manufactured in the US used by Arabs against Jews, or Jews against Arabs. So FBI agents with binoculars were watching as Lou took off from Burbank Airport near Los Angeles, and watching when he landed at Teterborough Airport in New Jersey. There is a new law, which has not taken effect yet, which prohibits even cargo planes from going overseas.
Then the pilots travel to Rome, which they use as a base for their operations. A sensuous Italian beauty, CAROLINA, adopts the pilots and uses her extensive contacts to protect and guide the men in their mission. The streets of postwar Rome are chaotic and dangerous, full of gangsters and opportunists of all kinds, mobs of Communists, and Nazis on their way to South America. Lous heart breaks as he sees Jewish families trying to find passage to Israel.
The team meet every day in outdoor cafes, wearing their jeans and flight jackets, as they pretend to be smugglers dealing in American cigarettes and perfume. This, they calculate, is the perfect cover for their real mission, which is to fly at night from Italy to Israel, bringing rifles, bullets, and medical supplies. They have to fly at night because the British Navy controls the Mediterranean.
Incredibly, British warships are intercepting passenger ships full of Jewish refugees heading for Israel, arresting them, and putting them in concentration camps, which they call Internment Camps, on Cyprus. The Egyptian Air Force roams at will over Israel, strafing Jewish civilians in the street, for sport, and shooting down any cargo planes they find. But the Egyptians only fly during the day, so the Jewish pilots land in the darkness, unload, refuel, and take off again before dawn and fly back to Italy.
Lou and his friends are hunted at every step by British agents and Arab assassins. Their planes are impounded, some of them are killed, and most of their efforts are frustrated. Most of their deals fall through and many of the planes crash.
Finally just as the May 15 deadline of Israels independence approaches, a deal is struck to obtain some war-surplus Nazi Messerschmitt fighter planes from Czechoslovakia. These planes are made up out of mismatched, left-over parts and the Czechs are just doing it for the money. The pilots get only a couple of hours of training in the rickety planes and manage to smuggle four of them Israel. The planes have to be taken apart, stuffed into cargo planes, and then painstakingly reassembled at an abandoned air base near Tel Aviv.
While they are waiting for the planes to be bolted together, the pilots hold a meeting and name their tiny squadron The Angels of Death, in honor of the Angel in the Biblical Exodus story that God sent to persuade the Egyptians to let the Jews go. In the Bible story, God sends all kinds of plagues against the Egyptians frogs, lice, locusts, hail, darkness but nothing works. It is only when God finally sends the Angel of Death that the Egyptian Pharoah relents and lets the Israelis go.
Now it is May 29, 1948 and Arab armies are rampaging through the newborn State of Israel. The Arabs are being true to their word of total extermination, and are taking no prisoners. The Egyptian army of 13,000 men is only 16 miles from Tel Aviv and about to conquer the city. There are only a few hundred Israeli troops on the ground to stop them. In a desperate act, some Israeli troops blow up a bridge to stop the advance, and so the Egyptian Army is now stalled until the bridge is repaired. They are parked bumper-to-bumper near the bridge, their hundreds of armored cars, fuel trucks, and ammo trucks all in a line.
Suddenly out of the late afternoon sun, four Nazi warplanes painted with the Star of David appear. The Nazi advisors who are assisting the Egyptians recognize the sound and silhouette of the BF-109, the most famous German warplane of World War II. The lead plane turns upside down, then dives for the ground and executes a perfect strafing and bombing attack. The other three planes follow. Each plane walks its machine gun and cannon shells along the line of Egyptian vehicles, and then releases its bombs, creating destruction, death, and panic. The Egyptians are stunned. They abandon their attack on Tel Aviv and scatter. Israel is saved.
This is the first combat mission of the Israel Air Force, led by Lou. The victory gives Israel crucial time to equip its soldiers and consolidate its defenses. Word flashes around the world that the Jews can fight. Success attracts success, and soon many other veterans arrive in Israel, eager to help out.
Several days later, Lou is flying a lone patrol in the skies over Israel, at peace with the force of destiny that pulled him to be at this spot at this moment. He is satisfied that the refugees, himself included, now have a fighting chance to make a home for themselves in the world.
This is a true story, validated by the official archives of the Israel Air Force. Lous wingman that day was Ezer Weizman, who later became head of the IAF, the Israel Air Force, and then President of Israel. Lou is the last man standing, the only survivor of the four founding pilots of the IAF. Flight of Angels
This story is not widely known, even though the events have been recorded in newspaper accounts, magazine articles, hundreds of public lectures, and history books. These brief accounts only touch on the main points of this improbable adventure. Now Lorin Roche and Camille Maurine are writing the story based on their research and more than a year of interviews with Lou.
A Book Noble Heart, by Lorin Roche, Ph.D. and Camille Maurine narrative nonfiction based on Lous life story. It will read like an action-adventure novel and as a gripping personal memoir. From Lous boyhood on a farm in Hungary, to immigrating to the U.S. and becoming a fighter pilot in the Marines, to his service to the nation of Israel, the book traces the forces that shaped his destiny.
The book will include a foreword by internationally renown historian Michael Oren (his Six Days of War sold a million copies).
The Mideast is in the news every day. And Israel is always involved, somehow. Lets hear about how and why Israel came into being. Why are those people there? How do they survive? This story is a window into how Israel was founded, as told by an American who was there.
Israel has always been on the front lines of Islams war against the West. Israel knows more about dealing with Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism than any other country. Six million Jews are surrounded by two hundred million Arabs. The United States needs to learn from Israels successes and mistakes.
Time is of the essence. The world needs to come up with solutions to defuse the tensions in the Middle East, lest the situation lead to nuclear or biological war. Israel is a democracy. There is a tradition of democracies helping each other in times of peril. France assisted the United States in its war of independence from Britain. The US assisted Britain in its war with the Nazis.
This story, of how Israel was founded, and how individual acts of courage saved the day, is a key to understanding how to deal with Arabs and Islam. The story affirms the value that small groups of individuals can invent ways to head off disaster and save the day.
Americans learn through movies, and love war movies. This is a great story a small group of rebel aviators go over to the Middle East, take on the Arab Empire and win. The facts of history are similar to the plot of The Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven, and Star Wars.
The Writers: Camille Maurine and Lorin Roche, Ph.D.
Guy meets girl in a car wash. The guy is 84, a Hungarian-born Jew, and he starts talking story. The girl, Camille, is a writer and she listens. One thing leads to another . . .
Husband-and-wife team Lorin Roche and Camille Maurine are researching and writing Lou Lenarts story for the book, documentary, and feature film. They are also co-producers on the documentary and Camille will interview Lou in the film.
When Lou met Camille and Lorin, he recognized that they had the sensitivity, passion, and knowledge to understand his experiences and his devotion to the cause of Israel. The idea for them to write the story evolved unexpectedly from their conversations.
Lorin Roche is the author of five books about the passions of the heart as revealed in meditation, and is an expert in interviewing techniques. He has a Ph.D. from the University of California at Irvine, in Social Science. In his research he adapted anthropological techniques to the study of intuition and meditation. Since 1968, he has worked with educational institutions, athletic teams, hospitals, the military, the homeless, and creative professionals.
Camille Maurine is the creator of Moving Theater, a process of re-enacting ones life story in performance. Trained in dance, drama, and the healing arts, Camille creates one-woman shows and directs improvisational theater. The couple teach Wild Serenity meditation and movement practices for following the call of the heart. They are the authors of Meditation Secrets for Women (HarperSanFrancisco) and Meditation 24/7 (Andrews McMeel/Simon & Schuster).
. . . Camille really did meet Lou in a car wash on Lincoln Boulevard in Venice, California, July 2005.
We want the book & documentary to be released simultaneously.
We Have Allies:
The cooperation of the Israel Air Force
A New York agent for the book
The network of Jewish organizations that Lou has spoken to over many years
A publicist lined up with a PR plan for the book and documentary.
Now We Need:
Financial Allies
Seed money to raise full funding for the documentary
An Executive Producer for the documentary
Research and Development support
We would be happy to provide further details on the project as requested.
"In 1948 Lou Lenart led the first fighter mission of the newly created Israel Air Force. He led an attack against the advancing Egyptian Army, changing the course of the war."
- United States Air War College report at the Gathering of Eagles conference, June 9, 2000, Maxwell Air Force Base, Mobile, Alabama.
Lou Lenart Biography
-from the United States Air War College
Lou Lenart led the first fighter mission of one of the worlds most respected and successful air forces. The date was 29 May 1948 and the state of Israel was only two weeks old. The first combat mission of the Israeli Air Force was to attack the Egyptian Air Force at El Arish and destroy as many Egyptian aircraft as possible. At the last minute, the mission changed the Egyptian army was moving toward Tel Aviv. Four Israeli fighters launched to attack the Egyptian force. Lenart was leading, followed by Alon, Weizman, and Cohen. On the Israeli Air Forces first mission, Eddie Cohens aircraft was shot down and Eddie was killed, and Alons aircraft was severely damaged. The mission was costly, but the attacking army turned back and Israel survived.
Lenart was born in Hungary in 1921 and, at age 10, he immigrated with his immediate family to the United States. As a youth, he watched the rising tide of anti-Semitic forces in Germany. Soon after the National Socialist Democratic Party took power, they began their systematic harassment and imprisonment of Jews. When Germany attacked its neighbors in 1939, Lenart knew that he wanted to fight the Nazis, and, in 1940, joined the United States Marine Corps. He completed basic training, served in the infantry for 18 months, and later entered flight school. In 1943, he received wings and reported to a squadron headed to the Pacific. In training, Lenart was nearly killed when another aircraft collided with his. He flew the Chance Vought F4U Corsair during the Battle for Okinawa, made numerous attacks on mainland Japan, and remained in the Pacific until the surrender of Japan in September 1945.
After he was released from the Marines, he soon learned that his relatives, who had remained in Hungary, had been murdered at Auschwitz. In 1948, as a combat veteran, he volunteered to fly for the Jewish underground then seeking a free Jewish state in Palestine. Lenart, and other pilots, went to Czechoslovakia to learn to fly the Avia S-199 Mezec (Mule), a Czech-built version of the WWII Messerschmitt Me 109.
On 14 May 1948, Israel declared independence and was immediately besieged by neighboring nations. The Mules were quickly taken apart, airlifted to Israel, and then reassembled. On 29 May, Lenart, and three other pilots, each with less than two hours in the fighter, launched at dusk to attack an Egyptian force of 10,000 troops supported by tanks and artillery at Ashdod, only 16 miles south of Tel Aviv.
The Israelis untested aircraft, armed only with 20-millimeter cannons and 70-kilogram bombs, made history when the Egyptians, confused by the secret air force, halted their offensive, dug in, and later retreated. One Mezec was lost in the attack and another was damaged beyond repair.
Although Lenart flew other missions, he used his WWII experience and served on the southern front as an air controller. After the war, he participated in an operation to rescue Iraqi Jews and bring them to Israel.
A man of many talents, he flew for El Al, Israels national airline, conducted aerial mapping missions over the jungles of Central America, and produced the major motion pictures, Iron Eagle I and Iron Eagle II. Lenart was General Manager of San Diego Clippers of the National Basketball Association in the early 1980s. He later returned to live in Israel. He resides in Tel Aviv and in Santa Monica and has one daughter. Lenart is now active as a lecturer.
LOU LENART
In front of his F4-U Corsair fighter plane, 1944, Okinawa
Insignia of the 101ST Squadron of the ISRAEL AIR FORCE, The Angels of Death
Flight of Angels
The true story of a man who followed his heart
and helped to save a country...
A Book, Documentary, and Feature Film
Based on the Life Experiences of
Captain Lou Lenart (USMC, Ret.)
Lorin Roche, Ph.D.
Camille Maurine
PO Box 9325
Marina del Rey, CA 90295
310 821-0620
The Flight of Angels Project concerns the miraculous survival of Israel in the first few weeks of her existence in May 1948. The focus is on a group of four young pilots an American, a South African, and two Israelis who spread their wings over the country and held off the Army of Egypt.
This is a stunning true story that educates as it inspires. It has the possibility to go out into the world and touch hearts. On the surface it is a classic Mission Impossible thriller, full of action and adventure. More deeply, it is a story of what can happen when you follow your heart and learn to see with your heart, to intuit your way around obstacles and accomplish your mission in spite of impossible odds. The background of the story is the Casablanca-like milieu of Rome and Tel Aviv in 1948, with stateless and undocumented refugees from the Nazis trying to find a home.
We see three vehicles for telling this story:
A narrative nonfiction book, which will read like a novel;
A documentary film combining interviews with historical footage;
And perhaps, a feature film.
Synopsis
Plot: A ragtag group of young pilots led by Lou Lenart take on the Arab Empire and win.
Synopsis: Hollywood, 1948. CAPTAIN LOU LENART is a lean and muscular 26-year-old Marine. During World War II, Lou miraculously survived the crash of his fighter plane, and now is in awe and gratitude just to be alive. Every day he asks, Okay, World, here I am. What do you want from me?
Now he is out of the service and having the time of his life, enjoying the California sun and dating actresses. But a series of news stories is making Lous heart ache: the UN announces that in 5 months, on May 15, it will recognize Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people. Then Azzam Pasha, the Secretary-General of the Arab League, announces a war of extermination against the Jews. Military experts are saying that Israel will last at most two weeks, because it has no army and no air force, while the Arabs have been fully supplied by the British with tanks, artillery, armored cars, and warplanes.
Lou learns that his Hungarian grandmother was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz. As he grieves over her fate, he starts to become aware that thousands of devastated Jewish survivors and orphaned children are trying to get to Israel, because no other country will take them in.
Lou can see these refugees, he sees them in his heart when he wakes up in the morning, and he sees them when he walks on the beach. And he knows that he has to help, no matter how impossible the odds.
As a fighter pilot, his instinct is to get a squadron together and fly in Israels defense. Through underground channels he makes contact with the Haganah, the Israeli secret service, and meets mastermind AL SCHWIMMER. With Als mentoring, under the guise of starting an airline, Lou buys an old C-46 cargo plane and flies first to New Jersey, then Italy, then Israel. Along the way he meets other young pilots, and together they form a brotherhood devoted to creating an air force for Israel. They are opposed by every nation on earth there is a worldwide embargo against weapons for Israel.
In New York the team gathers at Hotel Fourteen, at 14 East 60th Street. The Haganah, in its wisdom, is using it as headquarters. Halfway between Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue, Hotel Fourteen is home to many worlds. Above ground, it is a stately residential hotel, with old ladies of mysterious European origins and a motley assortment of gentlemen. In its basement is the Copacabana, the most glamorous night club in the world. Every night at the Copa, there are shows by the legendary performers of the day Count Basie, Abbot and Costello, Cab Calloway, Carmen Miranda, Desi Arnez, Jimmy Durante, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The Copacabana is also the favorite watering hole of the Jewish Mafia, Meyer Lanksys people, who assist and protect the pilots as they get their planes ready for the flight over the Atlantic to Italy. Secret agents, wise guys, and long-legged dancers pass Lou and the other pilots in the hallways. Life is good.
The pilots are being hounded by the FBI, who are trying to enforce the arms embargo against Israel. The United States does not want to see any weapons manufactured in the US used by Arabs against Jews, or Jews against Arabs. So FBI agents with binoculars were watching as Lou took off from Burbank Airport near Los Angeles, and watching when he landed at Teterborough Airport in New Jersey. There is a new law, which has not taken effect yet, which prohibits even cargo planes from going overseas.
Then the pilots travel to Rome, which they use as a base for their operations. A sensuous Italian beauty, CAROLINA, adopts the pilots and uses her extensive contacts to protect and guide the men in their mission. The streets of postwar Rome are chaotic and dangerous, full of gangsters and opportunists of all kinds, mobs of Communists, and Nazis on their way to South America. Lous heart breaks as he sees Jewish families trying to find passage to Israel.
The team meet every day in outdoor cafes, wearing their jeans and flight jackets, as they pretend to be smugglers dealing in American cigarettes and perfume. This, they calculate, is the perfect cover for their real mission, which is to fly at night from Italy to Israel, bringing rifles, bullets, and medical supplies. They have to fly at night because the British Navy controls the Mediterranean.
Incredibly, British warships are intercepting passenger ships full of Jewish refugees heading for Israel, arresting them, and putting them in concentration camps, which they call Internment Camps, on Cyprus. The Egyptian Air Force roams at will over Israel, strafing Jewish civilians in the street, for sport, and shooting down any cargo planes they find. But the Egyptians only fly during the day, so the Jewish pilots land in the darkness, unload, refuel, and take off again before dawn and fly back to Italy.
Lou and his friends are hunted at every step by British agents and Arab assassins. Their planes are impounded, some of them are killed, and most of their efforts are frustrated. Most of their deals fall through and many of the planes crash.
Finally just as the May 15 deadline of Israels independence approaches, a deal is struck to obtain some war-surplus Nazi Messerschmitt fighter planes from Czechoslovakia. These planes are made up out of mismatched, left-over parts and the Czechs are just doing it for the money. The pilots get only a couple of hours of training in the rickety planes and manage to smuggle four of them Israel. The planes have to be taken apart, stuffed into cargo planes, and then painstakingly reassembled at an abandoned air base near Tel Aviv.
While they are waiting for the planes to be bolted together, the pilots hold a meeting and name their tiny squadron The Angels of Death, in honor of the Angel in the Biblical Exodus story that God sent to persuade the Egyptians to let the Jews go. In the Bible story, God sends all kinds of plagues against the Egyptians frogs, lice, locusts, hail, darkness but nothing works. It is only when God finally sends the Angel of Death that the Egyptian Pharoah relents and lets the Israelis go.
Now it is May 29, 1948 and Arab armies are rampaging through the newborn State of Israel. The Arabs are being true to their word of total extermination, and are taking no prisoners. The Egyptian army of 13,000 men is only 16 miles from Tel Aviv and about to conquer the city. There are only a few hundred Israeli troops on the ground to stop them. In a desperate act, some Israeli troops blow up a bridge to stop the advance, and so the Egyptian Army is now stalled until the bridge is repaired. They are parked bumper-to-bumper near the bridge, their hundreds of armored cars, fuel trucks, and ammo trucks all in a line.
Suddenly out of the late afternoon sun, four Nazi warplanes painted with the Star of David appear. The Nazi advisors who are assisting the Egyptians recognize the sound and silhouette of the BF-109, the most famous German warplane of World War II. The lead plane turns upside down, then dives for the ground and executes a perfect strafing and bombing attack. The other three planes follow. Each plane walks its machine gun and cannon shells along the line of Egyptian vehicles, and then releases its bombs, creating destruction, death, and panic. The Egyptians are stunned. They abandon their attack on Tel Aviv and scatter. Israel is saved.
This is the first combat mission of the Israel Air Force, led by Lou. The victory gives Israel crucial time to equip its soldiers and consolidate its defenses. Word flashes around the world that the Jews can fight. Success attracts success, and soon many other veterans arrive in Israel, eager to help out.
Several days later, Lou is flying a lone patrol in the skies over Israel, at peace with the force of destiny that pulled him to be at this spot at this moment. He is satisfied that the refugees, himself included, now have a fighting chance to make a home for themselves in the world.
This is a true story, validated by the official archives of the Israel Air Force. Lous wingman that day was Ezer Weizman, who later became head of the IAF, the Israel Air Force, and then President of Israel. Lou is the last man standing, the only survivor of the four founding pilots of the IAF. Flight of Angels
Getting the Story Out
This story is not widely known, even though the events have been recorded in newspaper accounts, magazine articles, hundreds of public lectures, and history books. These brief accounts only touch on the main points of this improbable adventure. Now Lorin Roche and Camille Maurine are writing the story based on their research and more than a year of interviews with Lou.
A Book Noble Heart, by Lorin Roche, Ph.D. and Camille Maurine narrative nonfiction based on Lous life story. It will read like an action-adventure novel and as a gripping personal memoir. From Lous boyhood on a farm in Hungary, to immigrating to the U.S. and becoming a fighter pilot in the Marines, to his service to the nation of Israel, the book traces the forces that shaped his destiny.
The book will include a foreword by internationally renown historian Michael Oren (his Six Days of War sold a million copies).
Why Now?
The Mideast is in the news every day. And Israel is always involved, somehow. Lets hear about how and why Israel came into being. Why are those people there? How do they survive? This story is a window into how Israel was founded, as told by an American who was there.
Israel has always been on the front lines of Islams war against the West. Israel knows more about dealing with Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism than any other country. Six million Jews are surrounded by two hundred million Arabs. The United States needs to learn from Israels successes and mistakes.
Time is of the essence. The world needs to come up with solutions to defuse the tensions in the Middle East, lest the situation lead to nuclear or biological war. Israel is a democracy. There is a tradition of democracies helping each other in times of peril. France assisted the United States in its war of independence from Britain. The US assisted Britain in its war with the Nazis.
This story, of how Israel was founded, and how individual acts of courage saved the day, is a key to understanding how to deal with Arabs and Islam. The story affirms the value that small groups of individuals can invent ways to head off disaster and save the day.
Americans learn through movies, and love war movies. This is a great story a small group of rebel aviators go over to the Middle East, take on the Arab Empire and win. The facts of history are similar to the plot of The Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven, and Star Wars.
The Writers: Camille Maurine and Lorin Roche, Ph.D.
Guy meets girl in a car wash. The guy is 84, a Hungarian-born Jew, and he starts talking story. The girl, Camille, is a writer and she listens. One thing leads to another . . .
Husband-and-wife team Lorin Roche and Camille Maurine are researching and writing Lou Lenarts story for the book, documentary, and feature film. They are also co-producers on the documentary and Camille will interview Lou in the film.
When Lou met Camille and Lorin, he recognized that they had the sensitivity, passion, and knowledge to understand his experiences and his devotion to the cause of Israel. The idea for them to write the story evolved unexpectedly from their conversations.
Lorin Roche is the author of five books about the passions of the heart as revealed in meditation, and is an expert in interviewing techniques. He has a Ph.D. from the University of California at Irvine, in Social Science. In his research he adapted anthropological techniques to the study of intuition and meditation. Since 1968, he has worked with educational institutions, athletic teams, hospitals, the military, the homeless, and creative professionals.
Camille Maurine is the creator of Moving Theater, a process of re-enacting ones life story in performance. Trained in dance, drama, and the healing arts, Camille creates one-woman shows and directs improvisational theater. The couple teach Wild Serenity meditation and movement practices for following the call of the heart. They are the authors of Meditation Secrets for Women (HarperSanFrancisco) and Meditation 24/7 (Andrews McMeel/Simon & Schuster).
. . . Camille really did meet Lou in a car wash on Lincoln Boulevard in Venice, California, July 2005.
Getting into PRODUCTION
We want the book & documentary to be released simultaneously.
We Have Allies:
The cooperation of the Israel Air Force
A New York agent for the book
The network of Jewish organizations that Lou has spoken to over many years
A publicist lined up with a PR plan for the book and documentary.
Now We Need:
Financial Allies
Seed money to raise full funding for the documentary
An Executive Producer for the documentary
Research and Development support
We would be happy to provide further details on the project as requested.
"In 1948 Lou Lenart led the first fighter mission of the newly created Israel Air Force. He led an attack against the advancing Egyptian Army, changing the course of the war."
- United States Air War College report at the Gathering of Eagles conference, June 9, 2000, Maxwell Air Force Base, Mobile, Alabama.
Lou Lenart Biography
-from the United States Air War College
Lou Lenart led the first fighter mission of one of the worlds most respected and successful air forces. The date was 29 May 1948 and the state of Israel was only two weeks old. The first combat mission of the Israeli Air Force was to attack the Egyptian Air Force at El Arish and destroy as many Egyptian aircraft as possible. At the last minute, the mission changed the Egyptian army was moving toward Tel Aviv. Four Israeli fighters launched to attack the Egyptian force. Lenart was leading, followed by Alon, Weizman, and Cohen. On the Israeli Air Forces first mission, Eddie Cohens aircraft was shot down and Eddie was killed, and Alons aircraft was severely damaged. The mission was costly, but the attacking army turned back and Israel survived.
Lenart was born in Hungary in 1921 and, at age 10, he immigrated with his immediate family to the United States. As a youth, he watched the rising tide of anti-Semitic forces in Germany. Soon after the National Socialist Democratic Party took power, they began their systematic harassment and imprisonment of Jews. When Germany attacked its neighbors in 1939, Lenart knew that he wanted to fight the Nazis, and, in 1940, joined the United States Marine Corps. He completed basic training, served in the infantry for 18 months, and later entered flight school. In 1943, he received wings and reported to a squadron headed to the Pacific. In training, Lenart was nearly killed when another aircraft collided with his. He flew the Chance Vought F4U Corsair during the Battle for Okinawa, made numerous attacks on mainland Japan, and remained in the Pacific until the surrender of Japan in September 1945.
After he was released from the Marines, he soon learned that his relatives, who had remained in Hungary, had been murdered at Auschwitz. In 1948, as a combat veteran, he volunteered to fly for the Jewish underground then seeking a free Jewish state in Palestine. Lenart, and other pilots, went to Czechoslovakia to learn to fly the Avia S-199 Mezec (Mule), a Czech-built version of the WWII Messerschmitt Me 109.
On 14 May 1948, Israel declared independence and was immediately besieged by neighboring nations. The Mules were quickly taken apart, airlifted to Israel, and then reassembled. On 29 May, Lenart, and three other pilots, each with less than two hours in the fighter, launched at dusk to attack an Egyptian force of 10,000 troops supported by tanks and artillery at Ashdod, only 16 miles south of Tel Aviv.
The Israelis untested aircraft, armed only with 20-millimeter cannons and 70-kilogram bombs, made history when the Egyptians, confused by the secret air force, halted their offensive, dug in, and later retreated. One Mezec was lost in the attack and another was damaged beyond repair.
Although Lenart flew other missions, he used his WWII experience and served on the southern front as an air controller. After the war, he participated in an operation to rescue Iraqi Jews and bring them to Israel.
A man of many talents, he flew for El Al, Israels national airline, conducted aerial mapping missions over the jungles of Central America, and produced the major motion pictures, Iron Eagle I and Iron Eagle II. Lenart was General Manager of San Diego Clippers of the National Basketball Association in the early 1980s. He later returned to live in Israel. He resides in Tel Aviv and in Santa Monica and has one daughter. Lenart is now active as a lecturer.
LOU LENART
In front of his F4-U Corsair fighter plane, 1944, Okinawa
Insignia of the 101ST Squadron of the ISRAEL AIR FORCE, The Angels of Death