Remembering Rudy
Remembering Rudy — The Patchwork Plane Escape
By Blake Dafoe Melnick
Every Remembrance Day, I find myself reflecting on the stories we inherit. The ones tucked inside old letters, yellowed newspaper clippings, and the quiet corners of family memory. Some stories we grow up hearing again and again. Others remain hidden until the right moment arrives, and they find us.
For me, one of those stories belongs to my grandfathers' nephew, Flying Officer Rudolpho “Rudy” Mendizabal, a young RCAF pilot whose life ended far too soon. He was only twenty-five.
I didn’t know Rudy growing up as he died before I was born, nor was I aware of this story until much later in life. Like many of his generation, Rudy never spoke of his time during the war or about his own courage. In fact Rudy's family would never have known about his exploits if others had not told the story.
Tucked inside the Dafoe family archives was a fragile clipping from The Toronto Evening Telegram published in April 1943 — a story so extraordinary, so daring, that it almost defies belief.
It told of one of the most remarkable escapes of the Second World War: the story of five Allied airmen, including Rudy, who built a working aircraft out of two wrecked planes and flew themselves to freedom as Japanese forces closed in around them.
- Two broken planes.
- One patched-together miracle.
- And five men determined not to surrender.
Their remarkable escape stretched over 2600 miles across Java, Sumatra, and the Indian Ocean - over cratered airstrips, through bombing raids, and attacking enemy aircraft, with only a map torn from a magazine to guide them. The five men somehow managed to build the makeshift plane using primarily a six pence coin for a screwdriver, rope and bamboo to hold the tail together, and cork and bamboo to repair the holes in the fuselage - somehow, impossibly, they made it.
On this Remembrance Day, I share Rudy’s story on For What It’s Worth Podcast not just because he was family, but because his journey captures something essential about the human spirit - about courage, sacrifice, and the quiet, steadfast determination, and actions of ordinary people in extraordinary times - It highlights our potential as human beings.
We remember them not only for the battles they fought, but for the lives they hoped to live, for their service to our country, for the honour they exhibited through their actions, for their resilience, and for the freedoms they protected - freedoms we continue to enjoy today.
This episode is a tribute to Rudy, and to all who served with the same quiet resolve.
I hope you’ll listen, reflect, and remember.
For What it's Worth
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