President George W. Bush granted 19 pardons on Tuesday. The most important figure on the list of pardoned was undisputedly Charles Winters, the Boston-born Irish Protestant who was convicted in 1949 for conspiracy to export aircraft to Israel.

By selling decommissioned B-17 bombers to the Haganah resistance group in Israel and even flying one of the aircrafts overseas during the late 1940s, Mr. Winters became a national hero in Israel. 

He was federally convicted in 1949 for violating the 1939 Neutrality Act and breaking an embargo on weapons to Israel. Mr. Winters was fined $5,000 and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

On Tuesday, U.S. President George W. Bush officially and posthumously pardoned Charles Winters. His son, Jim Winters, a 44-year-old Miami maker of artistic neon sings, was said he was “overwhelmed” when receiving the news about the presidential pardon.

Charles Winters, worked with others to deliver two converted B-17 "Flying Fortresses" to Israel's defense forces. One of the planes was flown by him personally from Miami to Czechoslovakia, where the plane was turned into a bomber.

President Bush was urged through a letter wrote by New York Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Gary Ackerman, Jose Serrano and Brian Higgins to pardon Mr. Winters. The writers of the letter argued that, without men like Mr. Winters, a democracy such as Israel wouldn’t have resisted in the Middle East where it was surrounded by nations that closed in on its borders.

Film director Steven Spielberg also wrote a letter to Bush asking him to pardon Mr. Winters.

The two B-17s and another one who were flown to Czechoslovakia were the only bombers of the Israeli Air Force during that conflict and played a key role in turning the war in Israel’s favor.

In 1961, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir issued a letter of commendation which recognized Mr. Winters’ contributions to Israel’s survival as a state.

However, back in the United States, Mr. Winters and two men with whom he collaborated were convicted. Mr. Winters was the only one who served time. The two other, Herman Greenspun and Al Schwimmer, were pardoned by President John F. Kennedy (1961) and President Bill Clinton (2000) respectively. Jim Winters didn’t like that one bit and said he was very discontented because his father was “the low man on the totem pole in the operation.”

Charles Winters died in 1984 at age 71. Half of his ashes were buried in the Jewish cemetery of the Knights Templar in Jerusalem, while the rest were scattered from the top of Mount Tabor in Israel. He was the only American citizen to serve time for helping fly weapons to Jews struggling to create Israel.