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Source: http://jewishexponent.com/2018/04/25/war-of-independence-soldiers-reminisce/
Remembering Israel's War of Independence
(Philadelphia Jewish Exponent) Andy Gotlieb - Samuel Klausner, 94, a sociology professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, had been a U.S. Air Force navigator during World War II. He was active in Zionist youth groups in the U.S. and began working with the Haganah in 1947. Ultimately, Klausner was assigned to an air transport command unit that flew to Czechoslovakia to pick up arms and Messerschmitt planes. Klausner recalled manually dropping mortar shells out of planes that were the equivalent of Piper Cubs. Another time, Klausner was aboard a bombing mission of Damascus, Syria, where the crew simply pushed 100-pound bombs out the door. He notes that of the 1,500 U.S. soldiers who served in Israel's War of Independence, 1,300 returned home.