About this ebook
“For twenty years prior to World War II General Arnold was a tireless and effective evangelist for American air power. No other foresaw more clearly than he the revolutionary impact of the airplane upon the methods and conduct of war. Hap Arnold performed still another public duty in recording for us the results and the conclusions of his lifetime experiences. Whatever he has to say about air power deserves the close attention of all his fellow citizens.” — General Dwight D. Eisenhower, US Army
“The compellingly interesting autobiography of a great soldier-statesman and one of the finest presentations I have ever seen of the history of American military aviation.” — Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle, US Air Force
“[T]his book is more than the chronicle of a flier’s life; it is in a sense a saga of United States air power, and particularly a top-level picture of the United States Army Air Force in World War II... Global Mission will take an important place in the growing library of war books... a delightful book; it brings out so strongly the lovable personality of “Hap” Arnold. It is an important book... these reminiscences are a monument to him.” — Hanson W. Baldwin, The New York Times
“[An] interesting and important book” — Robert Gale Woolbert, Foreign Affairs
“There are many groups of people who will profit by a careful reading of Global Mission. As General Bradley well said in a recent letter to me, ‘It is “must” reading for the young military men of today who will have to be the Marshalls and Arnolds and Kings in any future emergency.’ The thinking people of the United States will make wiser decisions in the selection of their leaders, both military and civil, if they have read Global Mission. They will understand more clearly the frightful errors which have been made in the past and their cost in blood and treasure... Any who are tempted to be pacifists or isolationists in the future had better read Global Mission to learn the implications which can flow from false doctrines. The historian who has the difficult job of painting the true picture of the Second World War needs to read Global Mission for background. Here alone will he find some of the missing pieces in his puzzle... by any yardstick, [Global Mission] is worthy reading for any American.” — Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker, USAF (Ret.), Air University Quarterly Review
“[General Arnold’s] book is a very important contribution to the history of the Second World War; one reads it with passionate interest from start to finish. It is written in a lively way and also with that frankness, that outspokenness, which always surprises French people from the pen of such a high authority. It is also extremely revealing about the American character.” — René Jouan, Revue d’histoire de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale
“[This] book will be of enduring value.” — Ordnance
About the author
Born in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, Henry Harley “Hap” Arnold (1886-1950) graduated in the class of 1907 from the US Military Academy at West Point. He served in the 29th Infantry in the Philippines and at Governors Island, NY until April 1911 when he was assigned to the Signal Corps in Dayton, Ohio for instruction, including by the Wright Brothers on their biplane which had first flown in 1903. Arnold became one of the fist military aviators in June 1911 and taught other flyers at the Signal Corps aviation school.
In 1912 Arnold went to Fort Riley, Kansas, as an aerial observer of Field Artillery firing. He then worked in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer in Washington. As a captain, he was later assigned to the new flying school in San Diego. In 1917 Arnold organized an air service in Panama, which he commanded until May 1917. As the US entered World War I, he was called back to Washington, promoted to major and then to full colonel in 1917, in charge of Information Service in the Aviation Division of the Signal Corps. Arnold became assistant executive officer and in 1918 assistant director of the newly formed Office of Military Aeronautics. He went to France in November 1918 at war’s end on an inspection tour of aviation activities. In 1919 he became supervisor of the Air Service at Coronado, California, and air officer of the 9th Corps Area at the Presidio in San Francisco.
In 1920 Arnold went back to captain’s grade, but soon was promoted to major, where he remained until 1931. In 1922-24 he was commanding officer of Rockwell Field, California. He graduated from the Army Industrial College in 1925 and became chief of the Information Division in the Office of the Chief of the Air Corps. He went next to Fort Riley, Kansas, where he commanded Air Corps troops at Marshall Field until 1928. In June 1929 he completed the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth and was assigned as commanding officer of the air depot at Fairfield, Ohio.
Arnold was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1931 as commanding officer of March Field, California. In 1934 he organized and led a flight of 10 Martin B-10 bombers in a round-trip record flight from Washington, DC to Fairbanks, Alaska, for which he received his second Mackay Trophy. In 1935 Arnold was jumped two grades to brigadier general and put in command of the 1st Wing of General Headquarters Air Force at March Field. He was gaining a reputation as a bomber man, having encouraged development of the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator four-engine planes, and the precision training of crew members. In January 1936 he became assistant to the chief of the Air Corps in Washington and on September 29, 1938 was promoted to major general and appointed chief of the Air Corps.
His title became chief of the Army Air Forces on June 30, 1941, and that December he got a third star. When the War Department General Staff was organized in March 1942 Arnold became commanding general of Army Air Forces, directing during World War II global US air activities against Germany and Japan, growing the US air arm from 22,000 officers and men to 2,500,000 and from 3,900 planes to 75,000. He was a member of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and of the Combined Chiefs of Staff with the British. In March 1943 he received his fourth star. He suffered a heart attack in 1945, attributed by his doctors to overwork. He retired in 1946, after earning multiple US and foreign decorations including three Distinguished Service crosses, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and decorations from Morocco, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Peru, Mexico, France and Great Britain. In 1949, Congress changed the designation of Arnold’s final rank to five-star general of the Air Force, the first such commission ever granted.
