Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On Hap Arnold 2014022

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 States Army 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 wa