Booktv is on facebook. Like us to interact with booktv guests and viewers, watch videos and get uptodate information on events. Facebook. Com booktv. Military historian bill yenne recounts the career of happen arnold, commanding general of the u. S. Force during world war ii. The author reports that general arnold is often considered the father of the u. S. Air force for his expansion of the Military Branch during the war and the technological and strategic advances deployed under his command. This is about 50 minutes. [applause] thank you. Well, hey, i appreciate everybody coming out on a day like in this. I mean, what are we doing in here . [laughter] the sun in the sky and all of that great flying weather which is why california became a mecca for aviation. But here we are, and im happy, happy to have you all join me and thanks to willie for inviting me to come and talk. Well, im here today to talk about my favorite Childrens Book author. And thats a man named h. H. Arnold. Here are a couple of his books. Weve got bill bruce and the pioneer aviators, weve got bill bruce m bees an becomes an ace in world war i. So, yes, hap arnold was a Childrens Book author as a young major at fort reilly, kansas. He had time to write a half a dozen books for boys in that tradition of books for boys that were so popular in those days back when boys climbed trees and whittled with their pocket knives and had no video games. But young boys were also very interested in aviation. And, which hap was not as a young boy. Nor was he when he was at west point. He aggravated assaulted in 1907 but when he got the aviation bug , he fell hard. And he fell rather early in the whole, in the whole history of aviation. Some of you may have heard of his flight instructors. A couple of boys from bicycle mechanics from dayton, ohio, name of wilbur and orville wright. [laughter] yes, hap learned to fly from the Wright Brothers and began a career which took him to be, as the subl on the book says, the man who invented the United States air force. His entire career became part of that, of that effort to build Army Aviation into an independent air force. But before i Start Talking about his career, willie mentioned that there were some family interviews in the book, and i depended very heavily on those and, in fact, stole a lot of Great Stories from haps grandson, robert arnold, and were very privileged to have with us today robert arnold, and id like to invite robert up to tell a few stories about haps early life and career. Robert . [applause] thank you, bill. Incidentally, the book bill wrote is just terrific. Most of my family members have read it by this time, and and ive got positive reviews from everybody, so given the nature of my family, when they all agree on something, you know its pretty good. Im not an historian, im a wine maker from sonoma, california. Bills the historian. But i can tell you a couple stories here that i heard around the campfire as a young man. Fortunately, my father loved telling stories, so ive grown up with them, and he also wrote a bunch of them down. My dad was bruce arnold, the middle of the three sons. They were all west point graduates, all became colonels in the u. S. Military. Of pop ended up in the air force pop ended up in the air force in missiles and hightech. His name was actually William Bruce arnold, but he was known for most of his life as bruce, and heres the whole background of the story which will tie into what bill was talking about. The first part were going to talk about is 1926 in fort riley, kansas, which is the place where my grandfather wrote these books, and he wrote them because he read some of the books his sons were reading and thought they were just trash and he could do better. After a while, they took on a life of their own, so there we go. He had been exiled to fort riley on the express orders of the president of the United States. Well talk more about that later, perhaps, but he made much of of his time there in his cavalry post and made his comeback and career there. The naming part of the story. My father, William Bruce arnold, was named bill or billy after haps hero which was Billy Mitchell. And at that point a whole generation of army kids were named for Billy Mitchell. Is almost everybody in his generation was billy or bill. Even the cavalry kids, because the cavalry guys recognized a dynamic leader. So here we are on this cavalry post, and the problem came up at dinner time or whatever when mother would yell out the window billy come home now, and which billies would show up . So my grandmother had this bright idea and invited all of her contemporaries over for a bridge party and the usual punch and cookies, being prohibition time, and so she put out the problem and suggested that they draw cards. So they drew cards for who was going to be bill, billy, william, willie, etc. And when they got down the line after that, they would use middle names. So she was, she was known as kind of the card sharp of the area, but as pop said, she didnt draw well that day, so he became bruce. [laughter] Billy Mitchell was the hero of my grandfathers life and for that whole generation of folks as well. Although he was not stupid about it, understood what mitchells limitations were, he was still his hero. In 1924, the period he had been in washington before he had been sent into exile was the period of the mitchell courtmartial, and im sure most people know about the mitchell courtmartial. Hopefully, more than it was just a movie with gary cooper in it. But in any case, it was a National Event somewhat like the watergate trials would have been. Everybody was blewed to watching news rules glued to watching newsreels. Billy mitchell and hap arnold were very much close friends. And before the courtmartial period starts on sundays in those days military families would pay calls on each other and leave calling cards, and they would spend most of sunday doing this. The kids would always be left in the car while the parents went in and did the five minute protocol thing. Its a world that does not exist anymore today. Billy mitchell had a large establishment in virginia, and this was the place where the Arnold Family saw the First Electric refrigerator they ever saw in 1924. So they were so Billy Mitchell took them out to the kippen and showed them this kitsched and shed them this brand New Invention and also pulled out an ice tray which absolutely he could make his own ice. And this absolutely Fashion International airported the kids, the three of them. My dad, his brother hank, and his sister lois. And so the parents went back in the other room to sit down and discuss whatever matters they were discussing. At that point my father had the right bright idea that they could take the ice cubes out and sell them on the street because ice was something that was sold. So they proceeded to take all the ice out of the refridge rater, and they were trying to sell ice cubes to the kids in the neighborhood. Billy mitchell thought it was very, very funny. So thats how that story happened there. My father remembers strategy meetings in the living room during the mitchell courtmartial and at a point there were Death Threats against him and his sister and brother, so they moved the kids out of washington. That was that kind of period too. Most people dont know that, but this was a serious matter. And not only that, hap testified at the courtmartial which gave him one mark on the wrong side of the ledger. And then after the courtmartial period, he himself was testifying to a Congressional Committee about air service budgets, and he aringed for all of the arranged for all of fly bl airplanes on the east coast to buzz the capitol at one time during his testimony which they did and must have made a hell of a noise. Everybody was upset. And Calvin Coolidge at the white house was sleeping in that day because he had a cold, and it woke him up. And that did it. His orders to the secretary of war was get rid of that man. So chief of staff said to my grandfather, youre going to resign, and he said, no, i willl not resign. You can count martial me, and the courtmartial me, and the army was not going to have back to back courtmartials, so thats how they sent him to fort riley which he writes these books and his career continues. So thats my little story for today. Thank you. [applause] thank you. So that really sets the stage for haps career. He was, he was of either blessed or cursed with having met Billy Mitchell and having become a disciple of Billy Mitchell, an advocate of air power. Billy mitchells idea was that air power could do more than just shoot down other airplanes and maybe straw the enemy trenches strafe the enemy trenches. He imagined air power could reach deep into Enemy Territory and attack and damage and destroy an enemys ability to wage war, his ability to build war machines and, therefore, be an important element in winning wars. And that was, that was Billy Mitchells radical idea, and hap arnold was one of many who bought into that idea. Which was, of course, later proven in world war ii. But at the time and all of our discussion of fort riley, kansas, is very illustrative of what the army was like many those days. In those days. It was a cavalry force, you know . It was the people who went to west point if they got good grades, they became engineers. But most of them wanted to be in the cavalry. Hap wanted to be in the cavalry. That was his dream, to be in the cavalry. So that was sort of the overarching paradigm in the army. The guys who ran the army were all old cavalry guys. A guy named maylon craig who was the chief of staff of the army in the 30s, he famously said i dont want the army to be buying airplanes, because these damn things get obsolete so fast, then youve got to buy more of them, and what good are they . So that was sort of the uphill climb that hap was working against and that all of the other officers, young officers of his generation who were advocates of air power had to overcome that. So hap worked his way up. He did not, he bit his tongue more often than Billy Mitchell. He didnt wind up with Death Threats or courtmartial and progressed through the ranks and became assistant chief of u. S. Army air corps. Then in 1938 he became chief of the u. S. Army our corps. And at that time he inherited a force that was probably the seventh or eighth biggest air force in the world at a time when anything below five was a pretty pitiful thing. In fact, the u. S. Army air corps at the time that hap took over was just a really pitiful stepchild of the land army. They had 1700 airplanes, most of them obsolete. Well, thats not exactly true. All of them were obsolete. [laughter] they had a head count of 20,000, so it was, you know, the equivalent of a Division Plus of ground troops. It was a pretty pathetic thing. But maylon craig was chief of staff, and e insisted that we dont he insisted that we dont need those damn airplanes. That was, that was what he had to deal with. Coincidentally concern this is 1938 hap became chief the same week that some gentlemen were having a Little Summit conference in munich. President of france was there, mr. Neville chamberlain, the Prime Minister of of great britain, was there. And chancellor adolf hitler. And they, hiterer was, hitler was sort of stretching his muscles those days. He was, he had rearmed germany, and he was thinking that he wanted to run europe. Well, england and france at no time want germany running europe, but they didnt want another war. So they had this summit conference in munich, and hitler said, okay, guys, not this those same words, but you get the idea. If youll just give me most of czech czechoslovakia, then weve got a deal. I wont want any more. Therell be no war. So without bothering to ask czechoslovakia, britain and france said, sure. [laughter] mr. Neville chamberlain went home same week that hap became chief of the army air corpses corps, and he waved this signed agreement, and he said we got peace in our time. Well, we all know what happened to that. And it was, it was over the next few years as hap was able to get an audience with an eventually not initially sympathetic Franklin Roosevelt that the u. S. Army air corps started to get what it needed. When you start out with 1700 mostly obsolete airplanes, then youve got to, youve got to imagine that anything you get on top of that is going to be state of the art because its new. And so he started building up this u. S. Army air corps, and he started lobbying for more autonomy for the u. S. Army air corps. In the leads into this whole idea that this is a man who invented the u. S. Air force. He had, he had a unique ally in a man named George Marshall, general George Marshall, who was the guy who took over from maylon craig. And another one of these weird coincidences of history, George Marshall took over from maylon craig in september of 1939. And, which is on the very same week that hitler, who was going to be satisfied with czechoslovakia, needed no more territory, blitzkrieged into toland and started world war ii, the war that Neville Chamberlain insisted would never happen because we have peace in our time. So George Marshall took over as chief of staff of the u. S. Army. Became hap arnolds boss. Well, when hap went down hall to they didnt have a pentagon then, but they had the Army Building and he, when he went down the hall to introduce himself to the new chief of staff, it wasnt the first time they had med. No, they had actually been friends for some time. Hap first met general George Marshall when they were on maneuvers in the philippines. This was before hap became a flier. Its when he was an infantryman. George marshall was still an infantryman. They were on maneuvers in the philippines, and hap came across this other lieutenant, i guess marshall was a First Lieutenant at time and hap was still a second lieutenant, i dont remember. But both very, very young, wet behind the ears officers. Or and hap watched this guy. He watched his, the, he was, he was with pencil and paper working out the maneuvers and how, planning how his group was going to operate in the next phase of the exercise. And hap was really impressed by that. That night well, a couple of nights later when the exercises were over, hap went home, and he said to roberts grandmother, he said i met a guy on maneuvers, and one day i betcha this guy is going to be chief of staff. So same day that world war ii started, he did become chief of staff. And George Marshall became one of americas greatest military administrators. And also later famous for the Marshall Plan that rebuilt europe after world war ii. But two of them being friends and robert talked a little bit earlier about all the connections that were made during careers marshall became key to haps dream of an Autonomous Force within the army, an autonomous air force. And that became and that came into being in june of 1941 half a year before pearl harbor. And it became the United StatesArmy Air Forces thats forces plural because there were 16 numbered air forces. And hap became the chief of that, and he and because it was autonomous, this earned hap a seat on the joint chiefs of staff. So for the first time, the joint chiefs of staff which, actually, is a newlycreated organization because they recognized the need more coordination between these various services that had been army and navy had been at each others throats for centuries at that time so you had, you had the army, the navy and the u. S. Army air forces. Those three seats on the joint chiefs. And that was, and that was part of hap lobbying marshall. So what happened with this u. S. Army air force, used to be the u. S. Army air corps . Well, in six years hap build in this thing up. Built this thing up. He built it up from 1700 obsolete airplanes, most of which had to be thrown away, so 7,000 airplanes 17,000 airplanes. It didnt stop there, it didnt stop at 34,000. Within six years it was nearing 80,000. 20,000 men mushroomed to 2. 4 million. Hap arnold built the Largest Air Force in the world and its the Largest Air Force in world history. So what did he do with this air force . Well, he did a lot of things. He, he finally had a chance to exercise Billy Mitchells theory that if you get enough long range bombers, you can reach into the enenmys enemys heartland, and you can take out his armament factories, you can take out his transportation network, you can destroy his oil wells, his oil refineries. And after you do that, you can go after his sin metic synthetic petrochemical industry which the germans had a state of art one. Hap arnold took it out. A little story that id like to tell about anecdotal about air power many world war ii, there was in world war ii. There was, in june of 1944, this was at the point where the u. S. Army air forces were reaching the sort of the ap gee of their power, june of 1944 the allies finally decided that they were ready to invade europe. So on a day that was, that even has its own letter dday they inveigh saided nor invaded normandy. And they were, they were fighting the germans. They were fighting, they were foughting a country which in 1939 had been the most, had possessed the most powerful armed force in the world, had possessed the most advanced, competent, most deadly accurate air force in the world. The lift waf that was the most powerful air force in the world, 1940. They almost, and it if it hadnt have been for stupid mistakes, they almost destroyed the royal air force, Britains Royal Air force. Those were the two most significant air forces in the world in 1940. So, now, push has come to shove, and hap arnolds u. S. Army air forces are, have gone to war with the lift waf that. June 1944, operation overlord, the normandy invasion. There were 10,000 airplanes in the sky that day. Half dozen of them were german. That was the net result of not only the u. S. Army air forces fighters who attacked oneonone, but also the strategic forces, the eighth air force and the Fifteenth Air force that had gone after aircraft production in a very, very big way. They just didnt have the power to face this force. And the punchline of this anecdote is that since that day, the day that has its own letter, since that day no u. S. Ground force has ever gone to war beneath skies that were controlled by a force other than the u. S. Air force. They have haps legacy from that, from in this effort is that the United States has controlled the air in every war that it has fought since then. So, and lest we end on the note that this force that hap built was a entire hi an offensive entirely an offensive combat force, a lot of people dont remember the air transport command. Air transport command was just what it says it is. Started out with the ferrying command, the command that was taking airplanes from northeastern United States to england. Very small operation. It grew into what is, essentially, the largest airport or Largest Airline in the world. And when i say airline, im talking about an entity that had tens of thousands of airplanes assigned to it. It had regularlyscheduled service to every continent in the world except antarctica. They were running flights on a regular schedule across the north be atlantic, multiple flights daily, dozens of flights daily across the north atlantic, the south atlantic, across the pacific, across south asia, across north africa, from Central Africa up to north africa into, and then after dday into europe. And this was regularlyscheduled. And this was the worlds first intercontinental airline. And this was something that, this was hap arnolds doing. And so this thing that he built, this prototype for the independent air force that became independent immediately after world war ii was a monumental enterprise. It was something that when you talk about how quickly this was done, i mean, i said he did it in six years. Well, most of it was done really in three years. Tourists visiting air force at the skill that he had your period from basically about 19412544, he was looking ahead into the future. He impaneled a Scientific Advisory group. Running a guy named theodore von hartmann from south tyco at that time was the worlds leading aerodynamics is and he chaired the Scientific Advisory group for half arnold. They looked at all things for the future. Hap said i want to know about the state of military aviation pioneers. In 10 years, he even said this far ahead as 50 years. So this is what hap was doing when the war was winding down. He wasnt looking that. He was looking ahead. He also had this idea to create the research and Development Entity outside of the military, outside of the government. So he went to an old friend, who he had known since well, since they met during the first world war. A guy named don douglas who coincidently puts roberts other grandfather. Its a similar story. Don douglas started out as a draftsman very early in the history of aviation and by world war ii, he had up the largest plane maker in america. In fact, another idiotic doubt if theyll let me sort of slip into a doze. The two of them were quail hunting the day found out about pearl harbor. That is just another story of the many that we have been a storybook. All seriousness aside, so hap got in touch with don douglas. The two of them could it be a shia said we will call it our amd, research and development. This was the rand organization. It was initially caused in santa monica and eventually became the independent rand corporation, which still exists, which ensure you have her. So, the first project that rand did was initiated when hap was so chief of the u. S. Aas and completed shortly after his retirement in 1946. The first paper they did was a Feasibility Study for a world circus geisha. This is more than a decade before sputnik. The organization has hap arnold started was designing a spot to 10 years ahead of sputnik. So this is a little bit about how, you know, how hap looked at the future. A lot of people ask me, what would hap think now . What would he think about cyberwarfare . I usually respond to that, at the time he was around, he had no conception of such an eerie but i can guarantee you and i think robert will agree with me, if you give him a 10 to 15 minute retheme on what cyberspace serves and shown him a couple things on your laptop, he would have understood a complete the and he probably would have cut some amazing ideas of what to do with it. A lot of people also ask me, what word hap arnold think of drone warfare, dat of autonomous or remotely powered aerial vehicles flying combat missions. Well, interesting thing you should ask. This book here, bill bruce and the pioneer aviators is somewhat autobiographical. It is about assorted centers on the ninth team 10 flying meat at Governors Island in new york. All the pioneer aviators where they are pure welfare right was there, clint curtis, many other people. Bill bruce got to meet them. Well, hap arnold was also there and by that time he knew what it was all about. This other book, bill bruce becomes an 80s, this book is not autobiographical. This is bill bruce went overseas during the great war if he became a Fighter Pilot and he became an 80s, flying against the red. In the flying circus and all of these glorious diligence in their black leather flying sues and essentially told her he said war i career that hap arnold wished he had had. But what hap arnold really did in world war i i think is even more interesting. Nevermind the fact that when everybody went overseas, he ended up in washing 10 as the highest ranking man in uniform, who actually knew how to fly an airplane, rennie the home office and the air service in washing them. Nevermind. When hap finally did get to go overseas, he went overseas to plan for the deployment of americas First Military drone. This is the kettering bug. As robert and i were talking about this a little bit ahead of time, the development of the kettering bug and yes it really was the First American aerial drone. It brought together a lot of interesting areas like scary who later became famous for a gyroscope and half of course was there. The rates where they are. They developed not most the right, welfare had died a few years earlier. They develop an airplane that was powered by airplane. No pilot. This gyroscopic way controlled. That experience in on it. Such end this thing actually flew. I beg your pardon . It was developed in 1917, 198 team. It flew endeavors turning to build them in quantity and hap went overseas in the summer, early fall of 1918. His mission was to work out the details for bringing those things over and deploying them against the germans. If it hadnt been for the fact that this coincided with november 11, remember the 11th hour at the 11th day of the 11th month when the guns hadnt fell on 9 11. Then the kettering bugs would have been overseas than they would have been not only americas First Military drone, but the first one in combat. So hap was planning ahead. Other interesting fact about the kettering bug, which robert mentioned earlier when we were talking, this thing remained classified until world war ii, was still classified in world war ii as 17 dead in his memoir i hap scratched his head about, he was probably proud of the fact that something he had worked on was still says he. Even though biplane very thing thing of the past, it was still secret. Further therapy examples of how hap was really a forward thinker all his life. In back in the 1990s, hap died in 1950, early in 1950. So you are talking about half a century after hap was alive, the u. S. Air force adopted this doctrine of global reach, global power. That is considered the operational doctrine of the u. S. Air force today. This thing has taken straight out of hap ideas for the future of the air force. I mean, his memoirs were entitled global vision. So it is with hap, you have somebody whos not only affect the development of the u. S. Air force and basically created its, but you have a guy whose ideas are still alive in the u. S. Air force. I will close with an observation about hap this sort of percolated in to my head as i was first starting to work on this project but there is probably no other general in American History probably since george washington, who is as wellliked and wellrespected within his service as hap arnold was. The army has macarthur in patent, very famous guys, but theyve got an equal number of detractors as they do adherents. So hap not only in into the air force, that he is still, i would suggest, an icon of a guy who represent the air force. So with that, i thank you and they will move. Bill. I guess more of a comment and a question. Im pretty biased obviously. As bill notes, im an old d. 29 driver. Hap personally interceded that b29 problem during world war ii and saved the program. But it hadnt been for him, i dont know if theyd ever gone to war. It was such a disaster in 1843. People were getting nowhere the airplanes. He had personally made commitments to the president and the president had made commitments to tank eyeshade and we had airplanes in the far east on a specific date and it was impossible. The b29 program is going nowhere. Of course it was a 3 billion program, a billion dollars more expensive than the atomic bomb program. The hap interceded, took charge, got the priorities that they needed to get the program back on track. As for as im concerned, he saved the program. The b29 was the ultimate expression of this strategic warfare concept that really mitchell originated and that hap champion. It was an airplane it was the Strategic Bomber with greater range than by some number of factors that any airplane that existed at the time. This hap not only facilitated the development of this thing in the manufacturing of that, but the deployment in record time. Worse planes like the b17 come in a 24 could operate from bases in england and strike the heart of the third right, there were no bases available to the United States to do that against japan win the b29 was finally deployed in record time, as bill points out, it was now possible to begin taking apart the japanese regime. So the b29 was not just another plane. It was a superlative. Yes, sir. Did he have anything to do when they were use the 17th as drone aircraft to go when and basically just flyover and crash over there . That was another program that he was involved in. The idea was to basically pack a bomber full of explosives and crash it into an enemy installation. In this case, they were going after the b1 and interestingly enough, the one and only to be three sites in northern france. An interesting site to that story has been one of those missions, the older brother of john f. Kennedy was a pilot and he didnt get out. That was how he died. Yes, sir. There are quail hunting. I find that stuff really interest him. Yes, i did get into those. Again, i stole a lot of stories from robert and what i had read that his father had written. So yes. There are a lot of good stories. Any other questions . Programs are getting canceled by congress. How do you see the future of the u. S. Air force . Well, it is interesting because this. Its very similar to the days when in the 1930s, when hap was trying to develop the u. S. Army air force, he was finding things canceled and cut off and curtailed. What happens then, and what i fear will happen in the future is that we will see things curtailed and canceled and cut until there is a National Emergency that requires then to be reinstated until there is a need for those things and i really hope that if this happens, we have somebody with an understanding of the technology and innovation for happy to say that hap arnold had in the 1930s and 40s. [inaudible] immediately after, there was some effort and some went tunnels. Did he have anything to do with that . Is interesting because they mentioned theodore von carmen who is the worlds leading aerodynamics says. He was i guess you could say, von carmen was to aerodynamics when einstein was to physics and hap recognized back and brought people like that into his circle of advisers. Yes, sir. Could you characterize his relationship with curtis lemay, their working relationship . Well, that was interesting. I knew curtis lemay. I wish we would have talked more about hap. Curtis lemay with somebody with a reputation, there are a lot of elements to this complex reputation. But he had a reputation among other things have somebody who got things done. That was how lemay ended up writing the b29 operation. Interesting thing about the air force operated b29s was that while all these other numbered air forces, 15 others, each had a commander. The commander of the 20th air force was hap arnold. He maintained personal command of that. This field commander was curtis lemay. When it came time when hap and don douglas started rand, with what they brought in as part of their little group was curtis lemay. So, he did have respect for lemays ability to cut through and get things done. Okay. Thank you again. [applause] we do have books available. Im sure he would be happy to sign them. If you want t