Hap

Description for HAP: THE STORY OF THE U.S. AIR FORCE AND THE MAN WHO BUILT IT: GENERAL HENRY H "HAP" ARNOLD by Thomas M Coffey:

General of the air Force Henry H "Hap" Arnold, an incurable maverick whom the U.S. Army never learned to control, became, nonetheless, one of only four permanent five-star generals in the nation's history, and one of America's most important military leaders of all time. During forty-one years of active service, he compiled an unparalleled record as an airman and was truly the father of the modern Air Force. In 1911, four years after his graduation from West Point, the Wright brothers taught him to fly, and he became the holder of U.S. Army pilot's license number two. His rise through the ranks was marked by controversy, and when he took command of the Army Air Corps in 1938, it was a puny collection of 20,000 men and a few hundred planes, none good enough to face Germany's modern air force. By 1944, under the impetus of his compelling, relentless dynamism, it had grown into an organization of 2.4 million men and women and 80,000 aircraft. Never before or since has a military machine of comparable size and technical complexity been created in so short a period; at the height of World War II, Arnold commanded the mightiest air force the world had ever seen.

This is the only definitive biography of Hap Arnold. Thanks to the cooperation of the Arnold family, the Air Force, and the Library of Congress, author Thomas M Coffey had access to Arnold's private as well as his official papers and those of many of his associates. Coffey's research also included more than one hundred extensive interviews with Arnold's surviving colleagues, friends, and family members. The result is a three-dimensional portrait, fascinating but fair of a turbulent man and his turbulent times.