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Robert F. Maguire Jr., 94: Helped Airlift Thousands of Jews to Israel

(Los Angeles Times) Dennis McLellan - Robert F. Maguire Jr., the commercial pilot from Oregon who was dubbed the "Irish Moses" for helping fly tens of thousands of Jewish refugees through hostile territory from Yemen to Israel in 1949, has died at 94. The World War II veteran was working for Alaska Airlines in 1948 when the company was contracted by the American Joint Distribution Committee. As the chief pilot of Operation Magic Carpet, Maguire helped transport more than 40,000 refugees on nearly 400 flights. The operation was a secret one, but while the planes were often shot at, none of the planes crashed and no lives were lost. Maguire never forgot the Yemenites' singing and blessing as they flew into Israel, nor the grateful expressions on their faces. Maguire also flew Jewish refugees from China to Israel, and transported thousands of Iraqi and Iranian Jews to Israel. A vaguely fictionalized version of Maguire appears in Exodus, Leon Uris' 1958 novel about the birth of the modern nation of Israel.
2005-06-24 00:00:00
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