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Contact Info
Last Address New Haven
Date of Passing Jan 21, 2014
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
One of two Army Air Force pilots of the Douglas World Cruiser "Chicago." This airplane along with the "New Orleans" were the first two airplanes to fly around the world in 1924. The other pilot of the "Chicago" was Lt. Lowell H. Smith.
Arnold was co-pilot and mechanic for the DWC-2 "Chicago" (S/N 23-1230). All totaled, the "Chicago" weighed roughly 5,586 pounds including a pound of malted milk, two pounds of aircraft dope and four pounds of linen. By any measure, this is sparse equipment for a journey of 28,945 miles, completed in 371h:07m, at an average speed of 78 mph (cited at aerofiles.com).
Leslie Arnold was born August 26, 1893 at New Haven, CT. Prior to joining the Army he worked as a draughtsman at Electric Boat Company in Groton, CT. He joined the Army in 1917 and served for eleven years. He showed early aptitude for flying and was assigned to an early calss at the Military School of Aeronautics at Princeton University, where he received his ground instruction. WWI was underway and he was shipped to France where he completed his flight training in aerobatics and advanced flying.
He was among the first pilots to experiment with aircraft attack weapons, aerial photography, crop dusting and dropping smoke screen bombs. In 1921 he was a member of Gen. Billy Mitchell's group that conducted tests off the Virginia Capes to prove that battleships could be sunk by aerial bombardment.
Concurrently he was assigned for special training in Air Service photography. He graduated that school in 1922. Soon after he was chosen for the World Flight training at Langley Field, VA. He had accumulated about 1,500 flight hours, of which 800 were cross-country flights. This made him eminently qualified for the World Flight, and he flew many miles as pilot of the "Chicago".
After military service, Arnold, in 1928, became assistant to the president of TAT-Maddux Air Lines, which became TWA. In 1936 he became vice president of Pennsylvania Central Airlines, which became Capital Airlines. He joined Eastern Airlines in 1940, becoming assistant to Eddie Rickenbacker who was then president of the company.
During WWII, Arnold reenlisted as a colonel and organized the 39th Air Freight Wing and later became commander of the Ferry and Transport Services in Europe. He returned to Eastern after the war and was elected vice president in 1946. He died in March 21, 1961.
It is interesting to note above that they finished their voyage in Seattle, as planned, on September 28th. Arnold notes it took them 371 hours and 11 minutes, which differs by four minutes from, say, the 371 hours 7 minutes cited at aerofiles.com or by eight hours from the 26,445 miles in 363 hours 7 minutes cited in this book. This is a discrepancy which, at this late date, makes little difference: many people have flown around the world since 1924. There was only one "first time", however.
Regardless, after reaching Seattle, Arnold's record for the "Chicago" shows they flew around on the west coast until November when they headed east again. They passed through Tucson a second time on November 4-5 on their way to Dayton, OH. A new engine was installed, it appears, at Tucson.
Arnold maintained a prose diary of his flight with the "Chicago." The first page captures the first day's flight from Seattle (on pontoons) to Prince Rupert Island in 8 hours 10 minutes. The second page documents their approach to Washington, DC on the way back, and their meeting with President Coolidge. The third page documents Sunday, September 28, 1924 as they returned to Seattle, WA.
Arnold's dark pilot humor shows on the first page as he describes the 40-foot waves on the Pacific soon after departure. "Great sport" he says, "to watch them dash against the shore -- greater yet to imagine a forced landing." They landed at Prince Rupert at 4:55PM in a blinding snow storm. DWC-1, "Seattle", broke the outside left struts upon landing. Arnold's final synopsis in the lower right-hand corner: "Hell of a day."
The second page covering September 9, 1924 describes every pilot's nemesis, head wind. Upon (delayed) arrival at Bolling Field in Washington, DC at 4:55PM the crews were complimented to discover that President Coolidge and his entire Cabinet had been waiting in the rain since 11AM. This was in marked contrast to Coolidge's response to the flyers before they had left in April. He had said to General Patrick at a photo op, "Who are these men?"
His final entry in his diary on Sunday September 28th is, "The best part of the whole trip -- the finish, to have it all over with, to be thru with the worry and the strain of it all."
He married popular movie and stage actress Priscilla Dean, but they later divorced.
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Army Distinguished Service Medal Citation:
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to First Lieutenant (Air Service) Leslie P. Arnold, United States Army Air Service, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility. Lieutenant Arnold as Assistant Pilot of Airplane No. 2, the "Chicago," and Adjutant and Finance Officer of the U.S. Army Air Service around-the-world flight from 6 April 1924 to 28 September 1924, displayed rare organizing ability, initiative, and resourcefulness in carrying out these duties, in addition to the alternate piloting of Airplane No. 2 throughout the voyage. His technical skill, broad vision, business experience, high personal courage, and untiring energy contributed in a very decided manner to the successful accomplishment of this pioneer flight of airplanes around the world. In the splendid performance of these arduous and trying duties he conspicuously contributed in an accomplishment of the first magnitude of the military forces of the United States.
General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 14 (1925) Action Date: April 6 - September 28, 1924 Service: Army Air Forces Rank: First Lieutenant Company: Assistant Pilot Division: Airplane No. 2 ,"The Chicago"
Description The United States of America declared war on the German Empire on April 6, 1917. The U.S. was an independent power and did not officially join the Allies. It closely cooperated with them militarily but acted alone in diplomacy. The U.S. made its major contributions in terms of supplies, raw material and money, starting in 1917. American soldiers under General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), arrived in large numbers on the Western Front in the summer of 1918. They played a major role until victory was achieved on November 11, 1918. Before entering the war, the U.S had remained neutral, though it had been an important supplier to Great Britain and the other Allied powers. During the war, the U.S mobilized over 4 million military personnel and suffered 110,000 deaths, including 43,000 due to the influenza pandemic. The war saw a dramatic expansion of the United States government in an effort to harness the war effort and a significant increase in the size of the U.S. military. After a slow start in mobilising the economy and labour force, by spring 1918 the nation was poised to play a role in the conflict. Under the leadership of President Woodrow Wilson, the war represented the climax of the Progressive Era as it sought to bring reform and democracy to the world,[citation needed] although there was substantial public opposition to United States entry into the war.
Although the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, it did not initially declare war on the other Central Powers, a state of affairs that Woodrow Wilson described as an "embarrassing obstacle" in his State of the Union speech.[26] Congress declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire on December 17, 1917, but never made declarations of war against the other Central Powers, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire or the various Co-belligerents allied with the central powers, thus the United States remained uninvolved in the military campaigns in central, eastern and southern Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
The United States as late as 1917 maintained only a small army, smaller than thirteen of the nations and empires already active in the war. After the passage of the Selective Service Act in 1917, it drafted 2.8 million men into military service. By the summer of 1918 about a million U.S. soldiers had arrived in France, about half of whom eventually saw front-line service; by the Armistice of November 11 approximately 10,000 fresh soldiers were arriving in France daily. In 1917 Congress gave U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans when they were drafted to participate in World War I, as part of the Jones Act. In the end Germany miscalculated the United States' influence on the outcome of the conflict, believing it would be many more months before U.S. troops would arrive and overestimating the effectiveness of U-boats in slowing the American buildup.
The United States Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and submarines to help guard convoys. Several regiments of Marines were also dispatched to France. The British and French wanted U.S. units used to reinforce their troops already on the battle lines and not to waste scarce shipping on bringing over supplies. The U.S. rejected the first proposition and accepted the second. General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) commander, refused to break up U.S. units to serve as mere reinforcements for British Empire and French units. As an exception, he did allow African-American combat regiments to fight in French divisions. The Harlem Hellfighters fought as part of the French 16th Division, earning a unit Croix de Guerre for their actions at Château-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Séchault.
Impact of US forces on the war
On the battlefields of France in spring 1918, the war-weary Allied armies enthusiastically welcomed the fresh American troops. They arrived at the rate of 10,000 a day, at a time when the Germans were unable to replace their losses. After British Empire, French and Portuguese forces had defeated and turned back the powerful final German offensive (Spring Offensive of March to July, 1918), the Americans played a role in the Allied final offensive (Hundred Days Offensive of August to November). However, many American commanders used the same flawed tactics which the British, French, Germans and others had abandoned early in the war, and so many American offensives were not particularly effective. Pershing continued to commit troops to these full- frontal attacks, resulting in high casualties against experienced veteran German and Austrian-Hungarian units. Nevertheless, the infusion of new and fresh U.S. troops greatly strengthened the Allies' strategic position and boosted morale. The Allies achieved victory over Germany on November 11, 1918 after German morale had collapsed both at home and on the battlefield.
