Milton Rubenfeld (Hebrew: מילטון רובנפלד; September 13, 1919 – February 21, 2004) was an American pilot who flew for the Royal Air Force and U.S. Army during World War II, later becoming one of the five founding pilots of the Israeli Air Force in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

Of course there was no time to consider trifles, such as the fact that [the Avia S-199's] had never taken off, or even been tested in flight, their parts had not been checked, no one knew whether their systems functioned or if their machine-guns fired.

[6]In February 1948, the Haganah set up an agency in the United States headed by Hyman Shechtman (later, Shamir) assisted by Al Schwimmer, to recruit U.S. combat air veterans, both aircrew and ground crew, for the Haganah's "Air Service".

[7] Knowing of Rubenfeld's combat experience, Shamir approached him in early 1948 and asked him if he wanted to fly for the new state of Israel.

The initial plan was to attack a squadron of Egyptian Spitfires and C-47 Dakotas at El Arish, a base on the northern coast of the Sinai.

[6] That order was changed "at the last minute" due to the increasing danger of a direct ground attack on Tel Aviv.

The four fighters were ordered to bomb and strafe the Egyptian armored column that was advancing on Tel Aviv.

[9]: 46  The S-199 also had a tendency to ground loop, which Modi Alon's airplane did upon landing, rendering it unflyable for a time.

"[9]: 78 Rubenfeld's opinion of the Avia S-199, expressed in an interview nearly fifty years later: "It wasn't a very nice airplane.

The commander of the Egyptian ground forces was evidently shaken by the unexpected encounter with Israeli fighters: he ordered his troops to hold their position and advised Cairo that he was not advancing toward Tel Aviv.

The notes of the person who debriefed him were saved by the Israeli Defense Force (see sidebar)[9]: 20 5-30-48 Took off .... supposed to rendezvous with Wheizman (Red 1), circled our drome for aprox.

[sic] 10' looking for Red 1, could not find him and took off for target area headed for coast, followed coast up to Natanya, (150 feet, visibility very poor)... made run to target (E to SW) opened fire at 400 yards at Danaba (0 feet) made good hits on important houses (one of them a tower) and dropped one bomb from about 100 feet on Danaba, opened fire with MG and Cannons on Tulkarm Police Station and dropped the second bomb on Police St... West of Tulkarm (+Rd) made a 90 degree turn to N attacked 4 tanks (light British (Alexander)) registered hits (tracer) on all 4 of them (0 distance).

Noticed that Spit unidentified a/c made steep turn to left pointing his nose directly at me just over cloud base.

Haganah was very pleased with raid...After Rubenfeld's fighter was hit, he managed to fly it to Israeli territory, bailing out at 1200 feet over the Mediterranean Sea near the moshav of Kfar Vitkin.

His parachute did not fully open before he hit the water several miles offshore, and he suffered three broken ribs, several cuts, and an injury to his groin.

[4] He married a few years later; he and his wife, Judy (Rosen), had three children, with his family living first in Oneonta, New York, then Sarasota, Florida.

Forty years after his mission, Milt and Judy were cast as "atmosphere characters" (extras) in their son Paul Reubens' 1988 movie, Big Top Pee-wee.