The Double 5-Star

General Henry "Hap" Arnold was one of the most forward-thinking generals of World War II. Hap was trained to fly by the Wright brothers, a West Point graduate, air power advocate, 5-star General of the Army, first ever 5-star General of the Air Force, first man to receive a permanent commission as a 5-star General, and the only man to be promoted to 5-star General twice. He was a fascinating individual, a great leader, and a brilliant general. But what role did he play in WWII? And how does his story intertwine with the U.S. Air Force's?

Born 25 June 1886 in Gladwyne, PA, Henry Arnold knew he wanted to be a military man from the start. Admitted into West Point, he was soon given the nickname "Happy", or just "Hap",  and it stuck with him all the way through his graduation in 1907, into his military career. He had hoped to be a cavalry officer, but because of a rather mediocre performance as a cadet, he was sent to the infantry. He spent a full tour in the Philippines before applying to the cavalry again, but was refused a second time; because of this, he desperately applied to the Signal Corps, just to escape from the infantry. Finally accepted into the Signal Corps, Hap left his station at Governor's Island, N.Y. and was sent to Dayton, OH, to be trained to fly by the Wright brothers. After several crashes, or near-crashes, the young aviator grounded himself, resigning himself to piloting a desk for three years. He eventually overcame his fears, though, and got back into the air, leading a flight training school in California, and then going to Panama to establish a branch of the Air Service there. He commanded that until May 1917, just in time for him to be reassigned to the Air Service staff for World War I.

After the Great War ended, he was taken under the wing of Billy Mitchell, and began to rise in the ranks. He was given numerous awards for aeronautical achievements, and was given various commands throughout the 1920's. His was also a key testimony in the insubordination courts-martial of Billy Mitchell, because Arnold also shared Mitchell's beliefs in the airplane's crucial role in future warfare. They both recognized the strategic importance of air power, and both advocated the formation of an air arm of the military, separate from the Army. Arnold was the only one of the two to see this happen, however; not only that, but he was given command of this new Air Force. Before the birth of the United States Air Force, however, Hap was given command of the Air Service when the current Chief of the Air Service died, just before the outbreak of World War II. The newly-promoted Major General Henry Arnold's title was changed in 1941 to Chief of the Army Air Forces, and while holding this position, he was given his third star after Pearl Harbor.

Because of his new title and rank, he commanded all the air activities of our nation for WWII, both in the European and Pacific theaters. Under his guiding hand, the Army Air Forces grew from a mere 22,000 men with 3,900 aircraft to an astounding force of 2,500,000 men and 75,000 planes. Despite his nickname, Hap was somewhat of a harsh taskmaster and a bit of a micromanager. He hardly utilized his staff, preferring a very hands-on approach, and even though this was frowned upon, it was his strength, drive and vision that made the Air Forces grow so rapidly. He even took a nearly 35,000-mile tour of Africa, India, China and the Middle East in early 1943, with him stopping to attend the Casablanca Conference. In March of that year, he was promoted again, becoming a full-fledged four-star general. He was promoted once more before the close of the war, and was one of only five men to hold that rank, being among the likes of Generals Eisenhower, Bradley and MacArthur. Then, in 1945, he suffered a heart attack, attributed by his doctors as being due to overwork.

Shortly after this, in June of 1946, Hap retired after earning nearly all the awards a nation can give a military leader of his magnitude: three Distinguished Service crosses, the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal and decorations from Morocco, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Peru, France, Mexico and Great Britain, to name a few. He was also a bit of an author, writing books on flying while he was in the service to inspire boys and young men to get interested in aviation, and then, after his retirement, he authored an autobiography called "Global Mission". This book is unique, in the fact that not only is it an autobiography of Hap Arnold himself, but it's practically an autobiography of the U.S. Air Force, through the story of Hap's own life and experience. Finally, on 7 May 1949, a year and a half after the birth of the Air Force he helped create, Congress officially and permanently appointed Henry "Hap" Arnold to the rank of General of the Air Force, the first and only man to be a five-star General in the Air Force. It's also interesting to note that he is also the only man to ever be given five stars in two different branches of the military.

Hap died the next year, however, at his ranch near Sonoma, CA. But his legacy lived on, not only with the Air Force in general, but in numerous other places as well: his namesakes include the Arnold Engineering Development Center at Tullahoma, TN, the Air Force ROTC's Arnold Air Society (an optional honor society for cadets), Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee, and more recently, the Hap Arnold Heritage service coat, a uniform jacket currently in testing for the Air Force's dress uniform.

Hap was indeed one of the most advanced and forward thinking generals of his day, seeing the potential of air power before it was popular, and he was a pivotal, albeit overlooked, character in World War II. Without him, Allied air power would have been horribly unorganized, and America's air arm of the military would've been years behind even the slowest nation to adopt it. His nurturing of the Army Air Forces allowed it to grow and blossom into the globally dominating force it is today, the sentry and avenger of America, this greatest nation on God's earth.

 

References

DuPre, Flint. (n.d.). The Official Website of the U.S. Air Force. Retrieved 15 April 2012 from http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp?bioID=4551

Meilinger, Phillip. (n.d.). American Airpower Biography. Retrieved from http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/cc/arnold.html