On The Plus Side – His Leadership Was Instrumental In Defeating The Imperial Japanese And The Nazis
The playing field where the Aces of Lower Merion High School host their Central League opponents in football, soccer, lacrosse and field hockey – has been known as General Hap Arnold Field since 1950.
Arnold graduated from Lower Merion High School in 1903.
Henry Harley (later Hap) Arnold, second from the left – Photo Source Lower Merion Historical Society.
During World War II he was the commanding general of the Army Air Force.
Airforce Times wrote about him – As one of the world’s first licensed pilots, trained at the Wright brothers’ own flying school and mindful that might requires science, technology, and solid design and planning, Arnold conceived a vision of America as an air power and, simultaneously balancing immediate needs with the necessity of peering into the future, nurtured a tiny, feeble armed service into an aerial armada capable of winning a world war.
Henry Harley (“Hap”) was born in Gladwyne in 1886 in a house that is now the rectory of St. John Vianney Catholic Church – located at the corner of Youngsford Road and Conshocken State Road.
He graduated from West Point in 1907.
In 1911, Lt. Arnold (not yet known as Hap) was sent to Dayton where the Wright Brothers taught him to fly.
By 1931 he had achieved the rank of Lt. Colonel. According to AF.Mil an official Air Force website – In July and August 1934 he personally organized and led a flight of 10 Martin B-10 bombers in a round-trip record flight from Washington, D.C. to Fairbanks, Alaska, and next year received his second Mackay Trophy for this achievement. In February 1935 Arnold was jumped two grades to brigadier general and put in command of the 1st Wing of General Headquarters Air Force at March Field, Calif. He was gaining a reputation as a bomber man, having encouraged development of the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator four-engine planes, and the precision training of crewmembers. In January 1936 he became assistant to the chief of Air Corps in Washington and on Sept. 29, 1938 was promoted to major general and appointed chief of Air Corps.
An official Air Force documentary about Hap Arnold
What the official Air Force website and the official documentary about Arnold fail to mention, is that in 1940, his ideas about integrating the military were at odds of those of his boss, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
From SocialStudies.org Like many of his military colleagues, General Henry “Hap” Arnold, Chief of the Air Corps, did not share his commander-in-chief’s enthusiasm for any move toward integration in military units. In a memo of May 31, 1940, he recommended against any training of Negro pilots for combat duty, whether in integrated or segregated units within the Army Air Corps (see Document A). According to Arnold, the possibility of having Negro pilots (officers) serving over white enlisted men would “create an impossible social problem,” while it was not feasible to organize an “all Negro Air Corps unit” in time for the needed mobilization.,
Notwithstanding the philosophical differences that Arnold had with FDR on the subject of race, he managed to keep his career in an upward trajectory throughout WWII.
AF.Mil wrote – His title was changed to chief of the Army Air Forces on June 30, 1941, and that December he got a third star. When the War Department General Staff was organized in March 1942 Arnold became commanding general of Army Air Forces. Prior to and all during World War II, he directed air activities for the nation’s global war against Germany and Japan. Under him the air arm grew from 22,000 officers and men with 3,900 planes to nearly 2,500,000 men and 75,000 aircraft. Early in 1943 Arnold made a 35,000-mile tour of North Africa, Middle East, India and China, and attended the Casablanca Conferences. In March 1943 he was promoted to four-star general. He suffered a heart attack in 1945 as the war drew to a close, attributed by his doctors to overwork.
He retired from the service June 30, 1946, after earning most of the honors a nation can give a world military leader of his stature, including three Distinguished Service crosses, the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal and decorations from Morocco, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Peru, France, Mexico and Great Britain. During his long career Arnold wrote a number of books, including early boys’ books to create interest among youth in flying, and the post-World War II autobiography “Global Mission,” an accurate account of Air Force activities in the war and his own life. On May 7, 1949 Hap Arnold was appointed the first general of the Air Force, five-star rank, by the U.S. Congress.
He died at his ranch home, Valley of the Moon, near Sonoma, Calif., Jan. 15, 1950.