Captain John Murray

John Murray at home in Chicago, late 1930s, before heading to the University of Detroit to study chemical engineering, play football, head student government, and learn how to fly. While in college he worked on the “Fast Line” at Ford’s massive River Rouge plant.

After World War II, Murray had a hard time finding work. During the war, Uncle Sam had taught 500,000 men how to fly and there were few jobs for pilots in the US. He began flying surplus plane parts from Czechoslovakia into Palestine to help Holocaust survivors prepare for Israeli statehood. Murray packed a sidearm, flew at night and tried to avoid contact with Egyptian Spitfires and anti-aircraft batteries. He didn’t always succeed. He also flew Yemeni Jews escaping from pogroms triggered by Israel’s founding, skirted East German MIGs to airlift food to blockaded Berliners, and braved snowstorms and T-55 tanks to fly anti-Soviet protesters out of Central Europe.