Henry H. Arnold - Champion of Airpower

In the early 1920s, an American brigadier general named Billy Mitchell tried to get the U.S. Army to put more men and resources into aviation. When he got nowhere, he went public and began criticizing superiors. He was court-martialed in 1926 and reduced in rank. His career had come to an end.

But Billy Mitchell’s cry for air power did not go unheard. Others saw the need and campaigned for the issue in less strident tones. One of those who did so was Henry H. Arnold.Arnold’s determination for air power resulted in the most powerful force ever assembled: 95,000 planes and 2,500,000 men and women to fly them, service them, and maintain them.

An Aviation Pioneer

Henry H. Arnold was born in 1886 in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania. It has been reported that his first “flight” was off the family barn, using his mother’s favorite parasol. He was graduated from West Point and became an infantry officer in 1907. 

Four years later, he entered army aviation. He and another army officer became America’s first army pilots. They took their first flying lessons from Orville and Wilbur Wright. In 1912, Arnold performed an unusual army surveillance. For the first time in American military history, he radioed from his plane a description of the disposition and movement of troops on the ground. A training school for army pilots was set up at College Park, Maryland, part of the Army Signal Corps.

During World War I, Arnold served as assistant director of military aeronautics. Though army aviation had demonstrated its worth during the war, many traditional army officers disdained an emphasis on air power. As with armies all over the world, there was always competition for funding among the various branches. Arnold, as Mitchell did, strongly believed in air power. As the debate raged, Arnold did his part to keep up public interest in aviation.

He set up airmail service linking Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. He started the Aerial Forest Service. He also developed a method for refueling aircraft while still in flight.

From 1935 to 1938 he was assistant chief of the Army Air Corps; he became chief in 1938.

The news from Europe was alarming at this time. Nazi Germany was rearming, with a strong emphasis on its air force, and was also threatening its neighbors. Arnold spoke to all the major American aircraft manufacturers, urging them to start designing new bombers and fighters and to begin mapping out future expansion.

In 1939, war broke out in Europe and George C. Marshall (Number 5) became Army chief of staff. The following year, he chose Arnold as his deputy chief of staff for air.

Creating the Most Powerful Air Force in History

Arnold threw himself into his work. It had been Marshall who commented, “Before, we had the time but not the money. Now we have the money but not the time.” Obviously, planes were needed, but so were pilots, navigators, bombardiers, and maintenance crew. Training was needed and airfields had to be secured.

Before the war was over, Arnold was chief of the U.S. Army Air Forces through-out the world. In his capacity as a member of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff, General of the Army Arnold created the largest, most powerful air force ever. It was his army planes that took part in tens of thousands of missions all over the world. His planes took off from the carrier Hornet to bomb Tokyo, obliterated German waplants, flew supplies “over the Hump” from India to China, carried out the low-level bombing raids over the Ploestioil fields, and dropped the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war.

He retired in 1946. But before he did so, he laid the groundwork for two new pro-grams: the creation of a unified U.S. Air Force and the establishment of a National Air Museum as a part of the Smithsonian. The current Air and Space Museum in Washington is a direct result of his efforts.

Henry H. Arnold, the man who vindicated Billy Mitchell, died in 1950.