The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General of the Air Force Henry "Hap" Arnold - Jan. 26th, 2004

www.centennialofflight.gov ^ | Pamela Feltus

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
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FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

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U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

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General Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold
(1886 - 1950)

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When Hap Arnold became a military pilot in 1911, the U.S. military owned just two airplanes. By his retirement in 1946, he had built the U.S. Air Force into a separate service of the armed forces. Under Arnold’s guidance, the two planes and two pilots of 1911 had grown to a peak World War II size of 78,757 aircraft and 2,372,292 personnel. During his 35-year career, the versatile Arnold had combined his vision, political savvy, piloting skills, and engineering knowledge to forge a mission and place for the U.S. Air Force better than anyone who had come before.

Hap Arnold as a boy.

Henry Harold "Hap" Arnold was born in Philadelphia in 1886 and attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he was known as a prankster and troublemaker. His grades were mediocre, and when he graduated he was denied a commission with the cavalry, his dream position. Instead, he was assigned to the infantry and sent to the Philippines.

But he was lucky enough to befriend Captain Arthur Cowan, who had been charged with finding officers to join the Signal Corps flight training program. Knowing Arnold’s desire to leave the infantry, he chose Arnold. Arnold and another prospective pilot, Thomas DeWitt Milling, were sent to the Wright brothers’ flying school in Ohio to begin training on the newly purchased Wright Flyers.


Henry H. Arnold At College Park Maryland, 1916

Ground school lasted less than a week, and Arnold made his first flight on May 3 in a Wright Model B flyer. On July 6, he earned his civilian pilot certificate and on July 22, he was given military aviator rating.

When their training was completed, Arnold and Milling became flight instructors at the Signal Corps flight school in College Park, Maryland. They also worked on finding military uses for airplanes, which at the time, few people had considered. Arnold was a top-notch pilot and established a world altitude record and in October 1912, became the first Mackay Trophy winner by successfully using aerial reconnaissance to locate a cavalry troop. The next month, while participating in an artillery fire directing experiment, Arnold’s plane suddenly dropped into a downward spin. Arnold survived, performing the first successful spin recovery. When he landed, he asked for a leave of absence from flying and was transferred back to the infantry.


Henry H. Arnold aboard a Wright Flyer, 1911

When Congress increased aviation appropriations at the beginning of war in Europe, Arnold was recalled to the Signal Corps. With a temporary wartime rank of colonel, Arnold spent the war in Washington overseeing aircraft production and mobilization. As one of the few officers with flying experience, Arnold brought a valuable practical viewpoint to his job, and although not happy about being away from the battlefront, he gained valuable administrative experience.

After the war ended, Arnold served at several air bases and attended courses at the Army Industrial College. The new chief of the air service Mason Patrick called Arnold back to Washington in 1924 to serve as chief of information for the air service, charged with keeping abreast of developments in aviation. He was also given the impossible task of trying to subdue the outspoken Billy Mitchell, his old friend and mentor. During Mitchell’s 1926 court-martial, Arnold testified on his behalf. When Mitchell was found guilty and retired from the military, Arnold considered retiring as well, but feeling there was more to accomplish, chose to stay with the air service. Patrick sent him to Fort Riley, Kansas.


Henry H. Arnold in training at Dayton, Ohio, 1911

Despite its reputation as the worst post in the army, Arnold enjoyed Fort Riley. He taught airpower to the infantry soldiers and could interact with them. He could finally spend time with his family, and he wrote children’s stories about a pilot named Bill Bruce.

Leaving Fort Riley and after several reassignments, he was stationed at March Field in California. There, he made valuable contacts in the world of academia, particularly with members of the aeronautics program at Caltech and Theodore von Kármán, the noted aerodynamicist. Arnold became convinced that the only way the U.S. military aviation would be the best would be if industry, military, and academic research institutions all cooperated.



In 1934, Arnold earned his second Mackay Trophy, commanding a fleet of ten B-10 bombers on a roundtrip flight between Washington, D.C., and Fairbanks, Alaska. As a result of careful planning, the 8,290-mile (4,974-kilometer) roundtrip was accomplished with no aircraft losses. And it demonstrated to the American public that the geographical isolation the country had always relied on for protection was no longer a factor.

In 1936, Arnold became the assistant chief of the Air Corps, and when the chief of the Air Corps Oscar Westover died in a plane crash in September 1938, Major General Arnold became chief. Arnold inherited a force of fewer than 2,000 airplanes and 21,000 men at the same time that Europe was gearing up for another major war. Arnold had seen the problems stemming from a lack of preparedness during World War I and was determined that the Air Corps not be in the same position again. Using his administrative, political, and industrial experience, he mobilized both the military and industry. He knew that for the air corps to be useful, it had to have an equal balance of airplanes, pilots, support personnel, and air bases. While he pushed for an increased industrial infrastructure and research to improve his planes, he also developed training programs and built air bases. As much as he wanted the best bombers and fighters, he knew that trainer aircraft were equally important.


Colonel Henry H. "Hap" Arnold (right) with Captain Lowell H. Smith signing the flight log upon Smith's return from the First Transcontinental Reliability and Endurance Test, 1919.

Among Arnold’s successful mobilization projects was the development of the B-17 and B-29, heavy long-range bombers for large-scale strategic bombing campaigns. Other research programs Arnold pushed were radar, bombsights, windshield de-icing, and jet assisted take-off. But as the country moved closer to war, Arnold changed his views on long-range research. Rather than spend his resources on research projects to develop advanced capabilities that would not be completed until after the war, he preferred to concentrate on projects that would expand the combat range, effectiveness, and safety of the current planes. The only exception to this rule was the development of the XP-59A Airacomet, America’s first jet-engine aircraft. Arnold funded the XP-59A project because he felt that jets were the future of aviation. Although its first official flight was October 2, 1942, the plane never performed to a satisfactory level and did not reach high production levels.


U.S. Generals - George Patton, "Hap" Arnold, and Mark Clark.

On June 20, 1941, the air service was renamed the United States Army Air Force. Six months later, the United States was at war. Arnold organized the USAAF into smaller air forces, each with a specific task and war theater. He oversaw an enormous growth of people, airplanes, and support systems. He also supported initiatives that helped win the war and establish the U.S. Air Force: strategic bombings campaigns, Jimmy Doolittle’s raid on Tokyo, firebombing in Japan, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), and the development and fostering of promising officers who would lead the service in the decades to come. Arnold was devoted to his troops and spent much of the war touring overseas operations. He worked extremely hard and his health suffered for it. He had his first of several heart attacks on January 19, 1945, less than a month after his promotion to five-star General of the Army. His doctors and family encouraged him to retire, but he felt duty-bound to finish the war and bring his flyers home. He finally retired in June 1946, and one year later the U.S. Air Force was founded as a separate service. In 1949, President Truman signed a bill making Arnold a permanent (and in 2001, the only) General of the Air Force. He died the following January in his sleep.


Hap Arnold and Claire Chennault, Curtiss P-40s, Chungking, ca. 1942

Arnold’s pioneering flights, devotion to the concept of air power, promotion of technological development, and leadership during World War II have inspired generations of air force personnel, scientists, engineers, and dreamers. To honor him, the air force named an air force base in Tennessee after him in 1951. Arnold Air Force Base is the only base without a flying unit assigned to it; instead it houses the Arnold Engineering Development Center, the world’s largest collection of flight simulators to aid in advanced aeronautical research. For a man who spent his career promoting technology and research, this is a most fitting honor.

[Soaring Feather]

Museum Of Aviation

Sam, snippy, I don't add very much to your thread, but I found this and thought it is so cool.
Click the jet!

[snippy_about_it]

Wow feather that's a really cool website. Thanks so much for sharing it with us. By the way, you do to contribute to the Foxhole! We appreciate seeing your waving flag everyday and we appreciate it when you leave us some of your poetry. ;-)

[SAMWolf]

Morning Aeronaut.

Grab a parking spot and enjoy the Mayor's coffee

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Snippy

[SAMWolf]

Morning snopercod.

Do you suppose that the AF could ever be successfully reabsorbed into the Army?

Boy! I don't see that happening.

Maybe the Air Force is gonna relinquish contol of Close Support Aircraft to the Army and the Army will provide it's own Close Support Air Force.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Mayor.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Feather

[SAMWolf]

I don't believe Goodfellow AFB, TX, Brooks-City Base, TX or Bolling AFB, DC have active runways. Peterson AFB, CO, Falcon AFS, CO, Schriever AFB, CO and Onizuka, AFS, CA are Space Command bases and provide satellite control and early warning.

Thanks for the correction CholeraJoe.

Would you believe we said that only to see if anyone would catch it?

How about, it was a typo?

How about, oops we left off the other bases by mistake?

OK, OK! I didn't know any better. I never even heard of half of the bases you menitioned.

[SAMWolf]

Morning PE. Another case of the right man at the right time.

[SAMWolf]

Nice site Feather.

Lots of stuff out there and very well presented. Looks like I have a new source.

[CholeraJoe]

Goodfellow is in San Angelo, TX and is the DOD training base for intelligence services. Brooks City is in San Antonio and is a sleepy little base for Medical Research and training Flight surgeons. Bolling is where HQ USAF is. It's across the Potomac from Reagan National airport.

The Space bases are mostly new since 1990.

I've actually been to Arnold AFB, TN several times. The test facilities there are awesome including the "chicken cannon" which fires dead chickens at aircraft windshields to simulate bird strikes.

[Professional Engineer]

OK, OK! I didn't know any better. I never even heard of half of the bases you menitioned.

LOL! Us Air Force types haven't heard of half the Army posts that get mentioned either.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on January 26:
1748 Emmanuel Aloys Forster composer
1763 Charles XIV French marshall, king of Sweden & Norway (1818-44)
1804 Eugane "Marie Joseph" Sue France, novelist (Wandering Jew)
1814 Rufus King Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1876
1816 Lloyd Tilghman Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1863
1831 Mary Mapes Dodge New York City NY, writer (Hans Brinker & the Silver Skates)
1852 Pierre Brazza explorer/colonial administrator (French Africa)
1880 Douglas MacArthur Little Rock AR, General of the Army (WWII), he did return!
1887 Marc A "Pete" Mitscher US Lieutenant-Admiral (WWII-Task Force 58)
1902 Laurence "Bill" Craigie jet pioneer
1905 Maria Augusta von Trapp Austria, singer, inspired "Sound of Music"
1913 Jimmy Van Heusen songwriter (Love & Marriage)
1918 Nicolae Ceausescu Romanian "President" (1967-90)
1925 Paul Newman Cleveland OH, racer/popcorn mogul/actor (Hud, Hombre, Hustler)
1927 José Simón Azcona Hoyo President of Honduras (1986-90)
1928 Eartha Kitt South Carolina, singer/actress (Catwoman-Batman)
1928 Roger Vadim France, director (And God Created Women, Barbarella)
1928 Philip José Farmer Indiana, science fiction novelist (Riverworld)
1929 Jules Feiffer New York City NY, cartoonist (Passionella) author (Little Murders)
1934 Huey "Piano" Smith pianist (Having a Good Time)
1935 Bob Uecker Milwaukee WI, catcher/actor (Mr Belvedere)
1942 Scott Glenn (actor: The Right Stuff, Silverado, The Hunt for Red October, The Silence of the Lambs)
1944 Angela Yvonne Davis communist/professor
1952 Mario Runco Jr Bronx NY, Lieutenant-Commander USN/astronaut (STS 44, 54, 77)
1957 Eddie Van Halen Nijmegan Netherlands, rock guitarist (Van Halen-Jump, 1984)
1958 Ellen DeGeneres New Orleans LA, comedienne (Ellen Morgan-Ellen)
1961 Wayne Gretzky (hockey: Edmunton Oilers, LA Kings: NHL Season Point Record [215][1985-86]; MVP nine times [1980-'87 & 1989]; Stanley Cup Individual Career Record: 110 goals, 346 points scored [1979-1993])
1977 Cindy Cesar Miss Mauritius-Universe (1997)

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Deaths which occurred on January 26:
1109 Albericus of Cîteaux French saint, dies
1824 Edward Jenner discoverer (vaccination), dies
1885 Charles George Gordon British Governor-General, executed (slain with troops by Sudanese in Khartoum) at 51
1891 Nicholaus Otto auto pioneer (internal combustion engine), dies
1893 Abner Doubleday credited with inventing baseball, dies
1932 William K Wrigley owner (Wrigley Gum, Chicago Cubs), dies
1942 Gerard L F Philips Dutch manufacturer (Philips), dies at 83
1949 Victor Fleming director (Wizard of Oz, Gone With Wind), dies at 65
1962 Charles "Lucky" Luciano New York City NY Mafia gangster, dies at 65
1973 Edward G Robinson [Goldenberg], actor (Little Caesar), dies at 79
1979 Nelson Rockefeller former Vice President & 4 time Governor of NY, dies at 70
1983 Paul "Bear" Bryant college football coach, dies in Alabama at 69
1992 José Ferrer Puerto Rico, actor/director (Cyrano de Bergerac), dies at 80
1998 S P Leary Texan Blues drummer (Muddy Waters), dies at 67

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1966 GRUBB WILBER N.---ALDAN PA.
[03/13/74 REMAINS RETURNED]
1967 MORGAN THOMAS RAYMOND---AKRON OH.
[REMAINS ID 07/28/97]
1968 DUNN MICHAEL E.---NAPERVILLE IL.
[REMAINS RETURNED 12/09/99]
1968 EIDSMOE NORMAN E.---RAPID CITY SD.
[REMAINS RETURNED 12/09/99]
1969 SINGLETON DANIEL L.---AKRON OH.
1969 UTLEY RUSSEL K.---SAN FRANCISCO CA.
1971 CARTER GERALD LYNN---WINSTON OR.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
0066 5th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1340 English king Edward III proclaimed king of France
1531 Lisbon hit by Earthquake; about 30,000 die
1654 Portuguese troops conquer last Dutch base on Recife
1666 France declares war on England & Münster
1697 Isaac Newton receives Jean Bernoulli's 6 month time-limit problem, solves problem before going to bed that same night
1699 Venice, Poland & Austria sign peace treaty with Turkey
1736 Stanislaw Lesczynski flees Polish throne
1784 Ben Franklin expresses unhappiness over the eagle as America's symbol
1788 Captain Arthur Phillip forms English colony at Sydney, Botany Bay New South Wales as a penal colony
1790 Mozart's opera "Cosi Fan Tutte" premieres in Vienna
1802 Congress passes an act calling for a US Capitol library
1837 Michigan admitted as 26th US state
1838 Tennessee becomes 1st state to prohibit alcohol
1841 Hong Kong proclaimed a sovereign territory of Britain
1850 1st German-language daily newspaper in US published, New York City NY
1861 Louisiana becomes 6th state to secede
1862 Lincoln issues General War Order #1, calling for a Union offensive
1863 War Department authorizes Massachusetts Governor to recruit black troops
1863 54th Regiment (Black) infantry forms
1870 Virginia rejoins the US
1871 US income tax repealed
1875 Electric dental drill is patented by George F Green
1885 Muhammad Ahmed ("Mahdi") rebels conquer Khartoum
1886 Karl Benz patents 1st auto with burning motor
1905 World's largest diamond, the 3,106-carat Cullinan, is found in South Africa
1907 1st federal corrupt election practices law passed
1907 J M Synge's "Playboy of the Western World" opens
1910 Heavy rains cause floods in Paris
1911 Glenn Curtiss pilots 1st successful hydroplane, San Diego CA
1913 Jim Thorpe relinquishes his 1912 Olympic medals for being a pro
1915 Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado established
1918 US food administrator Hoover calls for "wheatless" & "meatless" days for war effort
1926 Television 1st demonstrated (John L Baird, London)
1932 British submarine M-2 sinks in Channel (60 dead)
1934 Nazi Germany & Poland sign non-attack treaty for 10 years
1939 Filming begins on "Gone With the Wind"
1939 Franco conquers Barcelona
1940 Nazis forbid Polish Jews to travel on trains
1942 1st US force in Europe during WWII goes ashore in Northern Ireland
1942 Italian supreme command demands dismissal of German marshal Rommel
1945 Soviet forces reach Auschwitz concentration camp
1948 Executive Order 9981, end segregation in US Armed Forces signed
1951 Mel Ott & Jimmie Foxx elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1954 Ground breaking begins on Disneyland
1956 Hank Greenberg & Joe Cronin are elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1957 India annexes Kashmir
1961 1st woman "personal physician to President"-JG Travell
1961 "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" by Elvis Presley peaks to #1
1962 US launches Ranger 3, misses Moon by 22,000-mile (37,000-km)
1962 Bishop Burke of Buffalo Catholic dioceses declares Chubby Checker's "Twist" is impure & bans it from all Catholic schools
1962 Canadian Marine Service renamed Coast Guard
1963 Major League Rules Committee votes to expand strike zone
1965 South Vietnam military coup under General Nguyen Khanh
1978 International Ultraviolet Explorer placed in Earth orbit
1979 "The Dukes of Hazzard" premieres on CBS's vast wasteland
1980 Israel & Egypt establish diplomatic relations
1985 Edmonton Oiler Wayne Gretzky scores 50th goal in 49th game of season
1987 Hart Foundation beat British Bulldogs for WWF tag team title
1988 Australia's 200th anniversary-parade of tall ships in Sydney Harbor
1990 Annular eclipse visible over Antarctica & South Atlantic
1991 Jan Stenerud becomes 1st pure placekicker to make NFL Hall of Fame
1992 Americans with Disabilities Act went into effect
1998 Intel launches 333 MHz Pentium II chip
1998 President Clinton says "I want to say one thing to the American people, I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky"

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Arkansas : General Douglas MacArthur Day
Dominican Republic : Duarte's Day/Dia de Duarte
India : Republic Day (1950)
Michigan : Admission Day (1837)
Australia : Australia Day (1794 - Present)
US : Meat Week (Day 2)
US : Glaucoma Awareness Week (Day 2)
National Soup Month

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Religious Observances
Roman Catholic : Feast of St Paula
Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran : Memorial of SS Timothy & Titus, companions of Paul
old Roman Catholic : Feast of St Polycarp, bishop/martyr (now 2/23)
Moslem : Night of Power (Ramadan 27, 1418 AH)

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Religious History
1564 Following the closing of the Council of Trent, Pius IV ratified its enactments by the bull "Benedictus Deus." Included among the Tridentine decisions were decrees concerning the creation of an Index of Prohibited Books (a list of condemned authors and their works).
1779 Pioneer American Methodist bishop Francis Asbury wrote in his journal: 'We should so work as if we were to be saved by our works; and so rely on Jesus Christ, as if we did no works.'
1906 The first General Assembly of the Church of God convened. Headquartered today in Cleveland, TN, the Church of God is the oldest Pentecostal Church denomination in the U.S., with roots going back to 1886.
1951 The Temple Beth Israel of Meridian, Miss. became the first Jewish congregation to allow women to perform the functions of a rabbi.
1967 Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: 'What God has done is well done.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"You're smart when you only believe half of what you hear, Wise is when you know which half to believe."

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Question of he day...
How can you tell when it is time to tune your bagpipes?

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Murphys Law of the day...(Harrison's Postulate)
For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.

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Amazing fact #837...
California's Frank Epperson invented the Popsicle in 1905 when he was 11-years-old.

[Soaring Feather]

Looks like I have a new source.

Good!!! That's what I wanted to have happen for you and snippy, a good source.

[SAMWolf]

I want one of those Chicken Cannons!!

Good morning campers!

Just to throw a little relevancy into the frozen chicken thread, allow me to summerize my own personal experience in this field. My background: 32 years experience at NASA's Lewis Research Center in sunny Cleveland, Ohio.

Before my current foray in the microgravity field, I worked for many a year in our supersonic wind tunnels. During the early 1970s we had a project to test a "particle rejection system" for aircraft engine inlets. Translation: let the air in, keep the birds out! Actually, this test was a series of wires, or blades in the inlet which was supposed to reduce the birds to manageable size as I recall.

We set up a mock inlet in the 8x6 transonic wind tunnel and painted grids on the far wall for our high-speed 16mm cameras to track the hapless creatures.

Since we had high speed air flow, we didn't need a cannon. We designed and built a trapdoor system connected to the ceiling of the test chamber in the wind tunnel. Three birds could be stacked in a holding chute, with a separate trap door for each bird. On command, the trap door opened and the bird shot into the airstream, with a trajectory calculated to make it hit the engine.

I don't know who ordered the birds, but we got them from the Red Cross, believe it or not. There were different varieties of birds available, we got something like assortment A or B (the Red Cross' own terms, I have NO idea what they used birds for). They were pigeons and smaller birds like black birds or starlings. The birds arrived Fedex in styrofoam coolers on the days we needed them. We thawed them out, loaded the trapdoors and ran the tests.

Many problems. First, it was real hard to get the birds to hit the engine inlet, so most of them missed, only to impact the far end of the wind tunnel a short time later. The 8x6 wind tunnel is configured in a large rectangle about 100 yards long, with turning vanes at the corners. The birds didn't turn. You can imagine the mess. Well, no you can't.

Harold, our chief engineer, hasn't happy. The thawed birds were no good, he said. Too stiff. We needed fresh, and we needed them big. We bought ducks. We picked them up from a local farmer on the day of a test. To be humane, we snuffed them by putting their heads in a CO2 extinguisher and gassing them. Your definition of humane may vary. (To tell the truth, Harold, a farmer himself, just wanted to drop them live. To Hell with humanity, we were designing engines!)

Anyway, the freshly snuffed ducks brought a new problem. Upon hitting the airstream at 500 mph, they exploded! To be exact, all the feathers were plucked in a millisecond, resulting in a large cloud of feathers entering the engine. With their aerodynamics somewhat rearranged, the ducks usually hit the wall in the test section. Nice film coverage.

On one memorable day, we forgot to order ducks from the farmer. In a panic, the junior engineer went to the farm to pick some up. He got back an hour later an absolute mess. The farmer wasn't home and he had to chase down the ducks by himself. He managed to catch one or two, which he threw in the trunk of his car. It was a hot summer day. By run time (we ran on midnite shift to utilize cheap power) the ducks were dead in his trunk and as stiff as rocks. We dropped them anyway, after much folding and stuffing to get them in the chutes. Shortly thereafter, the program was cancelled.

A true story from the archives of NASA. I got a ton of'em. Guess I should write another book.

Denny Thompson

[SAMWolf]

We have some pretty obscure ones and if you count all the "Camps" that are still operating it'd get even more confusing.

[SAMWolf]

1979 "The Dukes of Hazzard" premieres on CBS's vast wasteland

I liked "The General Lee"

[snippy_about_it]

Hiya CJ. Congrats on the VetsCoR news btw. ;-)

[snippy_about_it]

Howdy PE. Just a little better, thank you. The fever seems to be finally gone so recovery shouldn't be too far behind.