Henry H. Arnold - Legacy

Legacy

(Hap Arnold was) a dedicated officer in a specialized field, ... and at the same time, a human being, a warm-hearted, loyal, mercurial, flamboyantly belligerent fellow who didn't care who he took on in battle. Robert A. Lovett, November 6, 1978

Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee, and the Arnold Engineering Development Center are named for Arnold. The Air Force Research Laboratory generally recognizes Arnold as the visionary who first articulated that superior research and development capabilities are essential to deterring and winning wars. Arnold's ideas underpin the Laboratory's modern-day role within the Air Force.

The cadet social center at the United States Air Force Academy, Arnold Hall, and the Arnold Hall Community Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, are both named for Arnold.

The Air Force Association recognizes the "most significant contribution by a military member for national defense" with its H.H. Arnold Award.

The top honorary organization in Air Force ROTC, the Arnold Air Society, is named for him, and The George C. Marshall Foundation awards the George C. Marshall/Henry "Hap" Arnold ROTC Award annually to the top senior cadet at each college or university with an AFROTC program. The Air Force Aid Society awards a college scholarship in his name to the dependents of Air Force members or retirees.

On May 18, 2006, the Department of the Air Force introduced prototypes of two new service dress uniforms, one resembling those worn by Air Service officers prior to 1926, called the "Billy Mitchell heritage coat," and another, resembling the U.S. Army Air Forces' Uniform of World War II and named the "Hap Arnold heritage coat". In 2007, the Air Force decided in favor of the "Hap Arnold" prototype, but in 2009 the new Chief of Staff of the Air Force directed that "no further effort be made on the Hap Arnold Heritage Coat" and the uniform change was suspended indefinitely.

During the last mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, STS-134, a five-star insignia of Arnold's preserved in the National Museum of the United States Air Force was carried into space by shuttle pilot Gregory H. Johnson as a commemorative gesture to Arnold's legacy. Arnold was then the featured honoree of the museum's National Aviation Day celebration of August 20, 2011, when Johnson returned the insignia to the museum.

The United States Department of Defense high school at the former Wiesbaden Air Base in Wiesbaden, Germany, was named General H. H. Arnold High School in 1949. The school was renamed Wiesbaden High School in 2006 after the installation was transferred to the United States Army.

On November 7, 1988, the United States Postal Service released the H. H. "Hap" Arnold 65 cent postage stamp bearing the likeness of Arnold, in his honor, as part of the Great Americans series.

Arnold Drive, a main arterial road running through Sonoma Valley near his ranch, was named in his honor.

In a rare depiction of him on film, Arnold was sympathetically portrayed in the 1954 film The Glenn Miller Story, played by Barton MacLane.

General Arnold is the class exemplar of the United States Air Force Academy Class of 2012.