Arnold, Henry Harley

Arnold, Henry Harley, 1886–1950, American general, chief of the U.S. Army Air Forces (1942–46), known as "Hap" Arnold, B. Gladwyne, Pa., grad. West Point, 1907. Assigned (1911) to the aviation division of the Signal Corps, Arnold later served almost entirely with the air arm. He was chief of the Air Corps from 1938 to 1940, when he became deputy chief of staff for the air. Chief of the U.S. Army Air Forces throughout World War II, Arnold was made (1944) general of the army and, after the creation of the air force as a separate department, was made (June, 1949) general of the air force; both of these were five-star ranks. He wrote a number of books, several of them with I. C. Eaker.

Bibliography

See His autobiography, Global Mission (1949, repr. 1972); biography by F. O. Dupre (1972).