The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-07-05
By s. BURTON HEATH NEA Staff COrrespondent


 Washington, July 5-Gen. Henry Harley Arnold has built this nations puny little air force into the most powerful raiding and fighting or ganization in the world. The vigor and efficiency of his AAF admin istration have served to befog the fact that General Arnold is our Number One Army flyer still using the controls.
 In April, 1911, End It. Hap" Arnold was one of the first five men sent by the Army to the Wright Brothers field at Dayton, where Orville Wright fought him to fly one of the kites that passed as an air. plane in those days.
 The course took two months. Arnold received his wings after l40 minutes of soloing. and received U. s. Pilots License No. 29. From that day to this, he has flown regu- larly if not continuously.
 Nor has his flying been merely pro forma. He never goes out now with out co-pilot. Tn that he is obey ing his own order. issused when the death of Gen. Oscar Westover, in a crash at Burbank, Cal, vacat- ed the office of Chief of the Army Air Corps, to which Arnold was promoted. But his early record demonstrated that he is a topnotch flyer in his own right.
 SET RECORDS
 In June 1911, immediately upon graduation as a pilot, he became an instructor at the Army's new i00-acre field at College Park, Md.
 A year later he set an altitude record of 6540 feet in a Burgess Wright plane. In July and August, 1912, he made several records in Army National Guard maneuvers in New York and Connecticut. In October. 1912, he won the first Mackay Trophy for the first recon- naissance fiight-a 30-mile round- trip in a 4o-horsepower Wright bi- plane. The planes two propeliers. in tandem, were operated from the motor by chains and sprockets like 6 bicycle and achieved the cruising speed of 43 miles an hour. Arnold sat on the wing. The air was so bunpy that part of the time he couldn't look at his map. The feat was in its time. an epic.
 He was the first man to fire a machine-gun from the air; he was the first pilot to fly air mail-a fiye-mile hop between two fields on Long Island; he was the first man to direct artillery fire by observation in the air over plane-eaFried radio; he was to have been the first man to drop a bomb from a plane, but the craft wouldn't life both Hap Arnold and the bomb, so he had to give way to a lighter pilot.
 That small scar on his chin was received on a flight from Salem, Mas, to Bridgeport. Conn, in 1912, when he eraGh-landed on the ocean near Plymouth Beach. While he hung onto the Wreekage he ssw Q volunteer rescue party of two old men in Civil War uniforms turn back because, they nauttered. any body foolish enough to try to dy wasn't worth TeEculng,
 Tn y034 he received a second Maekay Trophy for leading . flight of 70 Martin bonsbeTs from Washs lngt0n to FalTbanks. Alaska. and back. demonstrating that this couFl- try could be bombed from Alaska lf we were careless enough to lose that outpost, He has ( D. 6. c. f0F the Teeora.bFeaking TTshouT and ll.mlnute flight from Brisbane to San Francisco, in September, iet7, after be had complied 6 tour Of the Pacific war zone,
 He never has flown in combat, because his organizing and admin lslFntive ability was vitally needed. When Wegid War I broke, lae was one Of only 3S Army officers quali- fie1 10 Ay OUT sb obsolete military planes, But he was sent to the Canal Zone to erganize cir defense there. and thencefoFth was kept igl Washington until h0stiiitles were oyer.
 aUPPOBTED MITCHELL Inevitably, Arnold WaB a supp0g- osg of Gen. nllly Mitchell when that ardent prUta1onlst ol cir power wng being enuelfhe6 hy the Feaa.