Henry H. Arnold Born in Pennsylvania

Summary

Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold was born on June 25, 1886, in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1907 and became one of the Army's early aviators, receiving flight instruction from the Wright brothers. During the following decades, Arnold held increasingly senior aviation commands and advocated development of long-range bombers, research, training, logistics, and new aerospace technology. During World War II he served as commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Forces and oversaw its expansion from a relatively small organization into a global force numbering millions of personnel and tens of thousands of aircraft. Arnold participated in major Allied strategic conferences and directed American air operations against Germany and Japan. He retired in 1946. Congress later authorized his permanent five-star rank as General of the Air Force, making him the only person to hold that rank.