Office of Air Force History

Hap: Henry H. Arnold Military Aviator Office of Air Force History

Publisher Marketing: Born in Pennsylvania on June 25, 1886, Henry Harley Arnold spent his youth in a home a few miles west of Philadelphia. His father, an authoritarian, conservative, and austere physician, so dominated the household that his children were not allowed to speak at the dinner table. Young Arnold reacted to this rigid upbringing in two ways. First, although he learned to submit to authority when necessary, he also developed a streak of contrariness that, on occasion, led him to oppose the powers that be when he disagreed with them on important issues. Second, when Arnold achieved positions of high command and stress, he reverted to type and adopted his father's authoritarian ways, which blended well with the management philosophy of the in the first half of the twentieth century. Arnold did not lead by attempting to create consensus. While genetic circumstance gives some individuals a stem, unsmiling physiognomy, it played the opposite trick on Arnold, affixing an almost permanent smile on his face. By the 1920s that smile would earn him the nickname of "Happy," soon shortened to "Hap."' On first meetings his apparent insouciance could lead others to misjudge both his ability and his tenacity. However, during World War II, members of the U. S. Army Air Forces Air Staff soon learned that the general's countenance retained its smile, even as he verbally cut subordinates to ribbons. At West Point and later Arnold displayed a mischievous, impertinent bent in accord with his looks. But Arnold had a ruthless impatience with failure, slackness, and incompetence coupled with a furious, sometimes uncontrolled, temper. Above all, he relentlessly drove himself and those around him to succeed at their tasks. His staff and subordinates felt his fire. As he matured he saved most of his charm for his superiors.