“Women in uniform ferried planes, towed targets, fixed and maintained aircraft, manned control towers, trained men to fly, reported on weather conditions, and much more.”
General Henry ‘Hap’ Arnold, commander of the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, is rightly remembered as one of America’s great pioneering military leaders of the 20th century. Not only did he oversee the dramatic growth of the USAAF during the war—alongside the adoption and implementation of new air power doctrine—but he was also an essential player in making the operational case that the air forces should be granted independence from the Army.