4.0

Father,

lasitt*.,

Alan Leventen's calling is
to fight for Israel's freedom.

M

alcolm Leventen of
Southfield and his son,
Alan, of New York City, are
perfect examples of the old adage that
the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Alan, 56, emulated his father's hero-
ism as a paratrooper in World War II
by serving five tours of duty as a
volunteer paratrooper with the Israel
Defense Forces. Both injured their
legs in jumps, and Alan has had eight
surgeries to correct damage. Alan
also is a native Detroiter and attended
Henry Ford High School and Oakland
University. He made aliyah to Israel at
age 18 and spent three years as a para-
trooper before returning to the U.S.
He moved to New York and became
a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch & Co.,
retiring as a vice president recently.

"But whenever there was trouble in
Israel through the years, I returned to
volunteer in the battles," he said. "At
54, I was the oldest person to fight
the Hezbollah in the Lebanese War in
2006. When I'm needed now, I serve
as a sniper team leader.
"I feel good because I'm doing
something to take some pressure off
the regular army and to deal with the
potential of suicide bombing," he said.
"My main goal is to continue fight-
ing terrorism. This is what my father
taught me. He fought a different kind
of terrorism in World War but, basi-
cally, they're all terrorists."
Married and the father of three,
Leventen lost a close friend in the 9-11
terrorist attack on New York's World
Trade Center, and rushed from his

Kamikaze suicide plane attacks by then
and were causing tremendous damage
and casualties to our invasion fleet. I
lost my best friend [Julius Stoorman of
Detroit] during a bombing raid; he was in
a building that suffered a direct hit. I was
knocked unconscious by the same explo-
sion, and I was sort of out of it for several
days before I could return to work."
Leventen was in the first wave in an
assault on the beach during the Lingayen
Gulf invasion (Luzon campaign) and was
hit in the right leg by a bullet. "I soon
found out I was allergic to sulfa drugs:' he
said. "And throughout all of this, I contin-
ued to be plagued by malaria, but a visit
by Gen. MacArthur cheered us all up. It
took us only three days to expand a short
air strip into a major bomber base."

Engineering On The Run

As the Americans advanced, the Japanese
retreated and destroyed all of the bridges,
hindering the invasion progress. Leventen
then championed the remarkable con-
struction feat of rebuilding 52 bridges,
most of them pontoon structures, over
110 miles "and each bridge was different,
so the engineers had to determine what
to do while on the go:' he explained. "I
had warned Gen. MacArthur it would take
three months to accomplish this, but time
was essential and we did it in one month."
By the time the project was completed,
Leventen's wounded leg was swollen to
almost twice its normal size and the pain
was excruciating, he recalled. "I was given
morphine to keep going and went into
one of our field hospitals after we entered
Manila;' he said. "I could see the battles
raging from my room on the eighth floor.

Malcolm Leventen in 1943

It was there I learned I would be part of
the engineering section to plan the inva-
sion of Japan!'
But first, the U.S. had to take Okinawa,
an island considered part of the Japanese
empire, so that the invasion could be
staged there, and U.S. planes could eas-
ily reach Japan for pre-invasion bombing
raids. The airstrip also allowed damaged
planes to limp back to safety rather than
ditch in the ocean.
While Leventen was greeting his arriv-
ing paratrooper friends on the island,
a Kamikaze suicide plane crashed into
American planes on the airstrip and blew
up. "I didn't know what hit me:' Leventen

Alan Leventen takes a break from duty in the Israel Defense Forces.

office in a nearby building to help vic-
tims after the first tower was hit. He
used the medical skills he acquired as
an Israeli paratrooper.
"I saw the plane hit the second

recalled, "and I woke up in the
hospital. For about 20 years
afterward, I would pass out for
no apparent reason, but I had
no outward physical injury."
Leventen avoided the main
Okinawa fighting — one of
the bloodiest of the Pacific war
— as his section started stag-
ing for the Japan invasion and
making plans to build a huge
hospital and supply buildings
for the many expected casual-
ties.
"Suddenly, on Aug. 6, 1945,
we heard that atomic bombs
were dropped on Hiroshima,
then Nagasaki three days
later:' he said. "It was impos-
sible to appreciate our feelings
of joy that the war was just
about over and we would not
have to invade Japan.
"Many of our men doubted
we would live through the
invasion. We all thought we would die
for sure, but we didn't seem to care any
more; especially those of us who had been
through the war for a long time."
Leventen witnessed the Japanese sur-
render ceremony, then thought he would
be heading home. But he was declared
"essential personnel" and sent to Korea
to supervise the building of bridges and
docks. After that, it was off to China
to check the railroad system while the
Nationalists were fighting the Communists
for control of the country. "I'm really not
sure why I was sent to either of these
places': he said. "I wanted to go home after
Okinawa because of my injuries."

tower and almost was killed by the
falling debris," he said. "The whole
episode inspired me to keep fighting
terrorists."

- Bill Carroll

Finally discharged, Leventen sailed
home — only to have his medals stolen
from his stateroom. While on a five-day
troop train trip home from the coast, he
suffered another malaria attack and spent
the entire time in his compartment berth.
When he returned, his family broke the
news to him that his mother had died dur-
ing the war.
In his post-war life, Leventen was mar-
ried for 55 years to his wife, Beatrice, who
died five years ago, and has three children
— Rita (Larry) Winokur of Bloomfield
Hills, Marilyn (Don) Rudick of West
Bloomfield, and Alan (Julie) Leventen of
New York — five grandchildren.
He opened the Malcolm Leventen
Corp. and engineered the development
of many office buildings and apartment
and condominium complexes in Oak
Park, Southfield and Livonia, including
the International Building at Nine Mile
and Greenfield roads. In fact, the home he
designed and built for daughter Rita and
her family was an award-winner.
"Malcolm is a real war hero and a giant
of the building industry," said Ed Kohl of
West Bloomfield, a retired engineer, who
met Leventen about 20 years ago because
of their mutual support of the Zionist
Organization of America.
"We formed a stock investment club
and Malcolm insisted we only buy stocks
and make investments in Israeli compa-
nies. He's a magnificent Zionist, who has
strong feelings against the terrorists who
have attacked Israel, and who the U.S. is
now fighting.
"If he could, he would get up out of
wheelchair and go after all of them him-
self" El

JIM

November 6 • 2008

A17

