The information you glean from the internet… who would have known:
Paul Reubens is best known for portraying Pee-Wee Herman and might seem like an unlikely candidate to have a military hero father. Years before his son was born, Milton Rubenfeld flew combat missions in World War II for both the Royal Air Force and the US Army. After the war, Rubenfeld was recruited to fly missions for Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
Rubenfeld became one of the founding members of the Israeli Air Force, which consisted of five pilots and four airplanes at the time. On May 29, 1948, the planes flew toward the Egyptian lines and engaged the enemy in a surprise attack. The following day, Rubenfeld’s aircraft was shot down, and he was forced to bail out into the Mediterranean Sea. He sustained numerous injuries but swam to safety. In spite of this setback, the formation of the Israeli Air Force was considered a key turning point in the war.