Lou Lenart

Lou Lenart
Born	Layos Lenovitz April 24, 1921 Hungary
Died	July 20, 2015 (age 94) Ra'anana, Israel
Language	English and Hebrew
Spouse	Rachel Nir (? – July 20, 2015) (his death)
Children	1

Louis "Lou" Lenart (April 24, 1921 – July 20, 2015) was an American-Israeli fighter pilot. His exploits during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War were documented in the 2015 film A Wing and a Prayer.

Lenart was born in Hungary as Layos Lenovitz to a Jewish family in 1921, in a small village near the Czech border. His parents were farmers. When he was ten, the family immigrated to the United States, settling in the Pennsylvania mining town of Wilkes-Barre, where his parents ran a small store. As a boy, he endured antisemitic beatings.

After finishing high school and taking a bodybuilding course, Lenart enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. After 18 months of infantry training, he was accepted into flight school. During flight training, he was severely injured in a mid-air collision. He saw action in the Pacific Theater of World War II as an F4U Corsair pilot, serving in Battle of Okinawa and in bombing missions over Japan. He was discharged from the Marines at the end of the war with the rank of captain.

After learning that 14 relatives had been murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp and attending a lecture on Zionism, Lenart decided to volunteer for Sherut Avir, the precursor to the Israeli Air Force. He took part in the clandestine smuggling of salvaged Czech-supplied warplanes to Palestine shortly before Israeli independence, flying them past the British blockade. He became a fighter pilot following the Israeli Declaration of Independence and the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, flying the Avia S-199 fighter plane.

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