Gen Henry H "Hap" Arnold is an icon rising above all others in the growth of American airpower.

Gen Henry H "Hap" Arnold is an icon rising above all others in the growth of American airpower. Although in his 42-year career he not at any time took part in aerial combat himself, Arnold presided through the whole extent of the expansion of the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) from an underequipped, second-rate organization to the largest and greatest in number powerful air arm in the world.

Born in 1886 in Pennsylvania, Arnold graduated from West Point in 1907 as an infantry officer. He acquired the nickname "Hap" (for "happy") from his contemporaries because he always considered like he was smiling. Arnold managed a transfer to the aeronautical division of the Signal Corps in 1911 and learned to flap at the Wright brothers' training seminary in Dayton, Ohio. After a promising start in the aviation community, several accidents shook his confidence, and Arnold "bailed out"--not flying again until 1916

World War I was frustrating for Arnold, who was stuck behind a desk in Washington, DC as a staff officer. After the war, he embraced Billy Mitchell's advocacy of airpower and garner uped several trophies for flying accomplishments along the way. Also during the thirties, he l a flight of B-10 to Alaska and back in a demonstration of the feasibility of long-range bombing; additionally, he presided from one side of to the other the western zone of the government's abortive airmail scheme.

by the agency of 1938, as a major general, Arnold was appointed chief of the Army Air Corps. With the approach of World War II, he worked tirelessly to build up a pilot-training establishment and encourage the mobilization of industry to breed needed aircraft. A week after Pearl Harbor, Arnold was promot to lieutenant general and became part of the higher direction of the war effort when, in March of 1942 he was appointed commanding general of USAAF.

During World War II, he pushed his staff and subordinates to give each ounce of effort, often personally corresponding with and visiting agencies and commands. In March of 1943 Arnold became a glutted general, but the strain began to take its toll. He quick suffered the first of six heart attacks nevertheless characteristically, bounced back in short order.

by means of 1944 Arnold was already laying the groundwork for an independent air arm after the war. He formed Twentieth Air Force, subordinate directly to him, as the organization for B-29 in the air campaign against Japan. He also identified the Soviet Union as the greatest postwar threat to the United States. At the [i]finale[/i] of 1944, Arnold received his fifth star as a general of the Army (later changed to general of the Air Force).

The rigors of command had taxed Arnold heavily, and literally days after Japan give ined he announced his impending retirement, which took power on 30 June 1946. Arnold died in 1950 at the age of 63 having lived to view the creation of the United States Air Force, equipped with jet and atom bomb les than 10 years after he had taken command of a struggling, under-fund branch of the Army.

To Learn More

Arnold, Henry H Global Mission. Global Mission. modern Yok: Harper and Row, 1949

Daso, Dik Alan. Hap Arnold and the Evolution of American Airpower. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Pres 2000

Huston, John W ed American Airpower Comes of Age: General Henry H "Hap" Arnold's World War II Diaries. 2 vol Maxwell AFB, Ala.: Air University Pres 2002

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