Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1942-07-17
HARRY RUSSELL
WRITES ABOUT The
NO. | WAR BIRD

A smile that won't come off and a
faith in the future of military avia-
ton that 25 years of wrong-way -rubs
couldn't erase are characteristics Of
Americas Number 1 War Bird The
smile that seldom fades from the face
of 1t. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, COM
manding general of the Army Air
Forces, isn't the snug one of a man
in the position at long last to say 81
tOld-you-so" Rather it is an outward
reflection of the inward conviction to
which he has held fast throughout the
years-the conviction that ultimately
air power would be supreme.
Those who believe that Destiny
picks her children at long range and
with unerring sense can find much
to support their theories in the
career of General Arnold He came
into the Army by chance, chose avia-
ton on a bunch, survived close calls
in his share of mishaps and bore the
stings of official displeasure before
finding his niche in the job of Great
ing the worlds greatest air force.
The son of country physician he
might have followed a medical career
had not an older brother turned down
a proffered appointment to West
Point in 1908. Arnold jumped at the
chance to substitute for his brother,
crammed for three weeks and passed
the entrance requirements for the
start of his military career.
Four years later he was graduated
and commissioned as a second lieu
tenant in the infantry. Soon he was
in the PHILIPPINES, a member of a
Typographical survey party. But
Destiny saw to it that he was one of
small group of Army officers on
Governors Island in New York Harbor
in May 1910 when an aeronaut named
Glen H. Curtiss completed a 1854
mile flight down the Hudson River
from Albany That flight settled
Arnold's career and the soothing of
his brother officers only intensified
his desire to become an aviator.
He applied for and was transfer
red to the aviation branch, going to
Dayton, Ohio, for training with the
Wright brothers. In hours and 20
minutes of flying time he was pro-
nounced qualified. Thus one of
Americas early war birds took to
wing.
The General himself, however, prob
ably regards the little flying field
HARDLY Washington at College Park,
Md, as the cradle of his air career.
Here it was, in 1912, that he won the
first Clarence Mackay trophy ever
awarded and in so doing definitely
established air reconnaissance as a
vital war factor.
He took off in a Wright biplane
and flew a 30-mile triangular course
at 50-miles per hour on cold, windy
October afternoon to prove to mill
tary skeptics that an aviator could
observe troops and determine their
strength from the air. He located a
cavalry unit hidden in the woods be-
side the Potomac and even though
half frozen and exhausted made re-
port TO his superiors that gave mill
tary aviation its first big boost.
Twenty-Five years later, in 1884,
now a Lieutenant Colonel, he led a
9O00-mile flight of ten bombers from
Washington to Alaska and return.
Several months later, promoted to
Brigadier General, he was awarded
the Mackay trophy for the second
time in recognition of the leadership
of that flight. But this demonstra
ton of the possibilities of long-range
bombing, always one of Arnold's pet
projects, came after military aviation
was definitely established and must
take a back seat to that earlier flight
in the very dawn of aviation as a
boon for the war-making possibilities
of aircraft
Americas number one War Bird
has long list of "firsts" to his credit.
In 1911 he carried the first air mail
in the country, five-mile flight from
one Long Island postoffice to another;
and in 1918 he was in charge of the
Army air mail the first in the world
He demonstrated first that planes
could direct and correct artillery fire
and was the first to prove the value
of wireless communication from plane
to ground. In 1912 he set the then
worlds altitude record by soaring to
$50 feet.
He holds Military License No. A