Dan Tolkovsky

Aluf Dan Tolkovsky (born January 17, 1921) was the commander of the Israeli Air Force from May 1953 to July 1958. Tolkovsky entered the military in 1943, when the Royal Air Force sent a Jewish unit from Palestine to train at a flight school in Southern Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe). Tolkovsky was the first in his group to complete the course, and went on to serve as a fighter pilot and later in aircraft reconnaissance in Greece during World War II.

Because of his air experience, Tolkovsky would become a founding member of Israeli air power. He first joined Sherut Avir, the short-lived forerunner of the IAF, where he assisted in the procurement of modern military aircraft from Czechoslovakia. He later served as the IAF Commander.