Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold was an American
general officer holding the grades of
General of the Army and later
General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, the only Air Force general to hold five-star rank, and the only person to hold a five-star rank in two different U.S. military services, the Army and the Air Force.
Arnold was also the founder of Project RAND, which evolved into one of the world's largest non-profit global policy think tanks, the RAND Corporation, and one of the founders of Pan American World Airways. Instructed in flying by the Wright Brothers at Ft. Myer VA, Arnold was one of the first military pilots worldwide, and one of the first three rated pilots in the history of the
United States Air Force.
Arnold rose to command the Army Air Forces immediately prior to U.S. entry into World War II and directed its expansion into the largest and most powerful Air Force in the world. An advocate of technological research and development, his tenure saw the development of the intercontinental bomber, the jet fighter, the extensive use of
radar, global airlift and
atomic warfare as mainstays of modern air power.
Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold (June 25, 1886 – January 15, 1950) was an American general officer holding the grades of General of the Army and later General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps (1938–1941), Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces during...
military-history.fandom.com
The 5-star of the Army Air Corps then the Air Force -- the only such officer ever -- "Hap" Arnold was known as a prankster and a cutup at West Point where he finished in the middle of his class. He with Gen. Curtis LeMay created the Air Force which placed Arnold as its first chief of staff and the only 5-star AF officer. LeMay himself and in turn became CSAF or chief of staff of the Air Force appointed by Potus Eisenhower.
I worked with a son of Gen. Arnold, the late Colonel Bruce Arnold in the 1970s on a specialized project. This was when I was professional staff in the US House in DC and Col. Arnold was following through on a WW II project of his father called the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, the WASPS.
The WASPS were dozens of remarkable military age women volunteers recruited by Gen. Arnold early in the war to ferry all kinds of fighters, bombers and whatnot to their assigned bases or on special orders locations in the USA. They freed up the male pilots to the war while these women learned to pilot anything military that would fly. I'd encourage you to look 'em up on Wiki or straight up on any search engine to get their remarkable story.
Gen. Arnold intended to activate the WASPS auxiliary into the regular military as regular pilots. They had officer rank and Arnold wanted 'em to be integrated into the regular Army Air Force by the time WW II ended. But it was not welcomed as Congress, military pilots and veterans groups of the millions stood hard and fast against it.
So in the second half of the 1970s, with the Equal Rights Amendment still kicking but just barely, and the WASPS getting older and needing medical care, they petitioned the Veterans Administration and the Congress for veterans medical and pension programs. Every WW II veterans organization opposed it even then and despite the need of the WASPS who were screwed out of active duty service during WW II.
This is the only time in my life that while pissing up a rope we won. We prevailed in the Congress despite the hard opposition of the VA and the huge veterans organizations to include conservatives in Congress. I was the guy in the House who negotiated with staff of the controlling members on the Veterans Affairs Committee of the House. I and the Senate Veterans Committee staff director Jon Steinberg, later a judge, worked out the deal with the staff director of the House Veterans Committee who had the green light to negotiate from the chairman, Ray Roberts of TX.
I had the support of Sen. Alan Cranston of California who was the chairman of the Senate Veterans Committee, without whom the whole thing was nowhere. Steinberg from the Veterans Committee staff on the Senate side and myself on the House Veterans Committee staff worked it through for Col. Arnold to fulfill his dad's intention to include the WASPS in the Army, and for the awesome women WASPS who were gypped out of their due for their voluntary and needed, not easy to do uniformed commitment to winning the war. Indeed, the WASPS were a military organization through and through, chain of command and all.
