title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Born June 25, 1886, in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, Arnold was the son of Dr. Herbert Alonzo Arnold (1857–1933), a physician and a member of the prominent political and military Arnold Family. His mother was Anna Louise ("Gangy") Harley (1857–1931), from a "Dunker" farm family and the first female in her family to attend high school. Arnold was Baptist in religious belief but had strong Mennonite ties through both families. However, unlike her husband, "Gangy" Arnold was "fun-loving and prone to laughter," and not rigid in her beliefs. When Arnold was eleven, his father responded to the Spanish–American War by serving as a surgeon in the Pennsylvania National Guard, of which he remained a member for the next 24 years.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold attended Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1903. The athletic fields at Lower Merion are named after him. Arnold had no intention of attending West Point (he was preparing to attend Bucknell University and enter the Baptist ministry) but took the entrance examination after his older brother Thomas defied their father and refused to do so. Arnold placed second on the list and received a delayed appointment when the nominated cadet confessed to being married, prohibited by academy regulations.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold entered the United States Military Academy at West Point as a "Juliette" (one month late), having just turned 17. His cadet career was spent as a "clean sleeve" (cadet private). At the academy he helped found the "Black Hand", a group of cadet pranksters, and led it during his first class year. He played second-team running back for the varsity football team, was a shot putter on the track and field team, and excelled at polo. Arnold's academic standing varied between the middle and the lower end of his class, with his better scores in mathematics and science. He wanted assignment to the Cavalry but an inconsistent demerit record and a cumulative general merit class standing of 66th out of 111 cadets resulted in his being commissioned on June 14, 1907, as a second lieutenant, Infantry. He initially protested the assignment (there was no commissioning requirement for USMA graduates in 1907), but was persuaded to accept a commission in the 29th Infantry, at the time stationed in the Philippines. Arnold arrived in Manila on December 7, 1907.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold disliked infantry troop duties and volunteered to assist Captain Arthur S. Cowan of the 20th Infantry, who was on temporary assignment in the Philippines mapping the island of Luzon. Cowan returned to the United States following completion of the cartography detail, transferred to the Signal Corps, and was assigned to recruit two lieutenants to become pilots. Cowan contacted Arnold, who cabled his interest in also transferring to the Signal Corps but heard nothing in reply for two years. In June 1909, the 29th Infantry relocated to Fort Jay, New York, and en route to his new duty station by way of Paris, France, Arnold saw his first airplane in flight, piloted by Louis Blériot. In 1911, Arnold applied for transfer to the United States Army Ordnance Department because it offered an immediate promotion to first lieutenant. While awaiting the results of the required competitive examination, he learned that his interest in aeronautics had not been forgotten.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold immediately sent a letter requesting a transfer to the Signal Corps and on April 21, 1911, received Special Order 95, detailing him and 2nd Lt. Thomas DeWitt Milling of the 15th Cavalry, to Dayton, Ohio, for a course in flight instruction at the Wright brothers' aviation school at Simms Station, Ohio. While individually instructed, they were part of the school's May 1911 class that included three civilians and Lieutenant John Rodgers of the United States Navy. Beginning instruction on May 3 with Arthur L. Welsh, Arnold made his first solo flight May 13 after three hours and forty-eight minutes of flight in 28 lessons. On May 14, he and Milling completed their instruction. Arnold received Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) pilot certificate number 29 on July 6, 1911, and Military Aviator Certificate Number 2 a year later. He also was recognized by a general order in 1913 as one of the first 24 rated military aviators, authorized to wear the newly designed "Military Aviator" badge.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: After several more weeks of solo flying in Dayton to gain experience, Arnold and Milling were sent on June 14 to the Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps station established at College Park, Maryland, to be the Army's first flight instructors. There Arnold set an altitude record of on July 7 and thrice broke it (August 18, 1911, to ; January 25, 1912, to ; and June 1, 1912, ). In August 1911, he experienced his first crash, trying to take off from a farm field after getting lost. In September Arnold became the first U.S. pilot to carry mail, flying a bundle of letters five miles (8 km) on Long Island, New York, and he is credited as the first pilot to fly over the U.S. Capitol and the first to carry a United States Congressman as a passenger. The following month, Arnold moonlighted as a pilot in the filming of two silent movies, doubling for the leads in "The Military Air-Scout" and "The Elopement".


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: The flight school moved in November 1911 to a farm leased near Augusta, Georgia, hoping to continue flying there during the winter. Training was limited by rain and flooding, and they returned to Maryland in May 1912. Arnold began to develop a phobia about flying, intensified by Al Welsh's fatal crash at College Park on June 11. In August Arnold was at Marblehead, Massachusetts, with 1st Lieutenant Roy C. Kirtland conducting acceptance tests of the Burgess Model H, an enclosed-fuselage tandem-seat seaplane and the Army's first tractor (front-mounted propeller and engine). The pair received orders to fly the new aircraft to Bridgeport, Connecticut, to participate in maneuvers but high winds forced them to land on Massachusetts Bay on August 12. Attempting to take off again, Arnold caught a wing tip in the water turning into the wind and crashed into the bay off Plymouth. Arnold suffered a lacerated chin during the mishap but the aircraft was salvaged and repaired. Another crash at College Park on September 18 killed 2nd Lieutenant Lewis Rockwell, an academy classmate of Arnold's.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: In October, Arnold and Milling were ordered to enter the competition for the first MacKay Trophy for "the most outstanding military flight of the year." Arnold won when he located a company of cavalry from the air and returned safely despite strong turbulence. As a result, he and Milling were sent to Fort Riley, Kansas, to experiment with radio and other communications from the air with the field artillery. Arnold's flight on November 2 in Wright C Speed Scout S.C. Number 10, with 1st Lieutenant Follett Bradley as his wireless operator, successfully sent the first radio telegraph message, at a distance of , from an aircraft to a receiver on the ground, manned by 1st Lt. Joseph O. Mauborgne of the Signal Corps. Three days later, Arnold flew on an artillery spotting exercise with 1st Lieutenant Alfred L.P. Sands of the 6th Field Artillery as an observer. Spiraling down to land in S.C. No. 10, the plane stalled, went into a spin, and they narrowly avoided a fatal crash. He immediately grounded himself and applied for a leave of absence. Flying was considered so dangerous that no stigma was attached for refusing to fly, and his request was granted. During his leave of absence he renewed an acquaintance with Eleanor "Bee" Pool, the daughter of a banker, and one of his father's patients.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: On December 1, Arnold took a staff assignment as assistant to the new head of the Aeronautical Division in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer in Washington, D.C. In the spring he was assigned the task of closing the flying school at College Park. Although promoted to 1st lieutenant on April 10, 1913, Arnold was unhappy and requested a transfer to the Philippines. While awaiting a response, he received orders to the 9th Infantry on July 10. In August, still awaiting transfer, he testified before the House Military Affairs Committee against HR5304, a bill to remove aviation from the Signal Corps and make it a semi-autonomous "Air Corps." Arnold, like fellow flyer Captain Benjamin Foulois, argued that the action was premature, and like his Signal Corps boss, Major Edgar Russel (a non-flyer), that the Signal Corps was doing all that could be done to develop military use of the airplane. He was assigned to a company at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, on September 1, where he was stationed until transferred to the 13th Infantry on November 1.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: On September 10, 1913, he and Bee married, with Milling acting as his best man. Sent back to the Philippines in January 1914, he was quartered near 1st Lieutenant George C. Marshall, who became his mentor, friend and patron. Soon after their arrival Bee miscarried, but on January 17, 1915, their first child, Lois Elizabeth Arnold, was born at Fort William McKinley in Manila. After eight months of troop duty, Arnold became battalion adjutant. In January 1916, completing a two-year tour with the 13th Infantry, Arnold was attached to the 3rd Infantry and returned to the United States. En route to Madison Barracks, New York, he exchanged telegrams from Hawaii with an assistant executive of the Aviation Section, Signal Corps, Major William "Billy" Mitchell, who alerted him that he was being detailed to the Signal Corps again, as a first lieutenant if he chose non-flying status. However, if he volunteered to requalify for a rating of "Junior Military Aviator", a temporary promotion to captain was mandated by law. On May 20, 1916, Arnold reported to Rockwell Field, California, on flying status but as supply officer at the Signal Corps Aviation School. He received a permanent establishment promotion to captain, Infantry, on September 23.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Between October and December 1916, encouraged by former associates, Arnold overcame his fear of flying by going up fifteen to twenty minutes a day in a Curtiss JN trainer, a much safer aircraft with a simpler flight control system than the Speed Scout of just four years' before. On November 26, he flew solo, and on December 16 qualified again for his JMA. Before he could be reassigned to flying duties, however, he was involved as a witness in a controversial service dispute in January 1917. Over the objections of Captain Herbert A. Dargue, the Aviation School's director of training, and with Arnold present, Captain Frank P. Lahm, the school secretary (adjutant), authorized on January 6 an excursion flight for a non-aviator that took place on January 10, again over Dargue's protests, resulting in the loss of the airplane in Mexico and the disappearance of the crew for nine days. After testifying to army investigators on January 27, confirming that Lahm had authorized the flight in writing, Arnold was sent to Panama on January 30, 1917, one day after the birth of his second child, Henry H. Arnold, Jr.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold collected the men who would make up his first command, the 7th Aero Squadron, in New York City on February 5, 1917, and was ordered to find a suitable location for an airfield in the Panama Canal Zone. When the military in Panama could not agree on a site, Arnold was ordered back to Washington, D.C., to resolve the dispute and was en route by ship when the United States declared war on Germany. Arnold requested to be sent to France, but his presence in Washington worked against him, since the Aviation Section needed qualified officers for headquarters duty.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Beginning May 1, 1917, he received a series of assignments, as officer in charge of the Information Division, with a promotion to major on June 27, as assistant executive officer of the Aeronautical Division, and then as executive officer after it became the Air Division on October 1. On August 5, 1917, he was promoted again, becoming the youngest full colonel in the Army.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold gained experience in aircraft production and procurement, the construction of air schools and airfields, and the recruitment and training of large numbers of personnel; and learned political in-fighting in the Washington environment, all of which would help him as head of the military's air services. When the Division of Military Aeronautics superseded the Air Division in April 1918, Arnold continued as executive assistant to its director, Major General William Kenly, and advanced to assistant director when the DMA was removed from the Signal Corps in May 1918.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold's third child, William Bruce Arnold, was born July 17, 1918. Shortly after, Arnold arranged to go to France to brief General John Pershing, commanding the American Expeditionary Force, on the Kettering Bug, a weapons development. Aboard a ship to France in late October he developed Spanish influenza and was hospitalized on his arrival in England. He did reach the front on November 11, 1918, but the Armistice ended the war on the same day.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: The Air Service separated from the Signal Corps on May 20, 1918. However control of aviation remained with the ground forces when its post-war director was a field artillery general, Major General Charles T. Menoher, who epitomized the view of the War Department General Staff that "military aviation can never be anything other than simply an arm of the (Army)". Menoher was followed in 1921 by another non-aviator, Maj.Gen. Mason M. Patrick. Patrick, however, obtained a rating of Junior Airplane Pilot despite being 59 years old and became both an airpower advocate and a proponent of an independent air force. Both Menoher and Patrick clashed often with Assistant Chief of Air Service Billy Mitchell, who had become radical in his desire for a single unified Air Force to control and develop all military airpower. Arnold supported Mitchell's highly publicized views, the consequence of which was a mutual dislike with Patrick.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold was sent to Rockwell Field on January 10, 1919, as District Supervisor, Western District of the Air Service, to oversee the demobilization of 8,000 airmen and surplus aircraft. There he first established relationships with the men who became his main aides, executive officer Captain Carl A. Spaatz and adjutant 1st Lieutenant Ira C. Eaker. Five months later Arnold became Air Officer of the Western Department (after June 1920 the Ninth Corps Area) in San Francisco and "de facto" commander of Crissy Field, being developed on a site determined by a board chaired by Arnold.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold's promotion to colonel expired June 30, 1920, and he reverted to his permanent establishment rank of captain. Even though he received an automatic promotion to major because of his Military Aviator rating, he became junior to officers serving under him, including Spaatz, whose promotion received while in France was not rescinded. On August 11, 1920, Arnold was one of 21 Infantry majors formally transferred to the Air Service by War Department Special Orders No. 188-0. As Air Service Officer of the Ninth Corps area, he oversaw the first regular aerial patrols over the forested lands of California and Oregon to assist in preventing and suppressing wildfires. (This service marked the first use of aircraft for wildfire suppression, prior to the modern use of water dropping aircraft.) Of Arnold, the National Park Service history of Crissy Field wrote: "During his tour of duty, Arnold had been instrumental both in bringing Crissy Field into existence, and establishing the pattern of its operations." In October 1922 he was sent back to Rockwell, now a service depot, as base commander and there encouraged an aerial refueling, the first in history, that took place eight months later.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold experienced several serious illnesses and accidents requiring hospitalization, including recurring stomach ulcers and the amputation of three fingertips on his left hand in 1922. His wife and sons also experienced serious health problems, including a near fatal case of scarlet fever for son Bruce. His fourth child, John Linton Arnold, born in the summer of 1921, died on June 30, 1923, of acute appendicitis. Both Arnold and wife Bee needed almost a year to recover psychologically from the loss.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: In August 1924, Arnold was unexpectedly assigned to attend a five-month course of study at the Army Industrial College. After completing the course he was hand-picked by Patrick, despite their mutual dislike, to head the Air Service's Information Division, working closely with Mitchell. When Mitchell was court-martialed, Arnold, Spaatz, and Eaker were all warned that they were jeopardizing their careers by vocally supporting Mitchell, but they testified on his behalf anyway. After Mitchell was convicted on December 17, 1925, his supporters including Arnold continued to use Information Division resources to promote his views to airpower-friendly congressmen and Air Service reservists. In February, Secretary of War Dwight F. Davis ordered Patrick to find and discipline the culprits. Patrick was already aware of the activity and chose Arnold to set an example. He gave Arnold the choice of resignation or a general court-martial, but when Arnold chose the latter, Patrick decided to avoid another public fiasco and instead transferred him to Ft. Riley, far from the aviation mainstream, where he took command of the 16th Observation Squadron on March 22, 1926. Patrick's press release on the investigation stated that Arnold was also reprimanded for violating Army General Order No. 20 by attempting "to influence legislation in an improper manner."


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Despite this setback, which included a fitness report that stated "in an emergency he is liable to lose his head", Arnold made a commitment to remain in the service, turning down an offer of the presidency of the soon-to-be operating Pan American Airways, which he had helped bring into being. Arnold made the best of his exile and in May 1927, his participation in war games at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, impressed Major General James E. Fechet, successor to Patrick as Chief of the U.S. Army Air Corps. He also received outstanding fitness reports from his commanders at Ft. Riley, Brigadier General Ewing E. Booth (who had been a member of the Mitchell court) and his successor, Brig. Gen. Charles J. Symmonds.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Repairs to Arnold's service reputation may also have been aided by a professional article he wrote for the "Cavalry Journal" in January 1928, showing the influence of his association with the Cavalry School at Fort Riley. Arnold urged a strong combined arms team be developed between the Air Corps and the Cavalry; and by extension, all ground forces. This opportunity for development of the concept in both theory and practice was lost however, by the effects of cultural differences between the two service branches and the dominance of American isolationism. It did not develop until the United States was engaged in World War II.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: On February 24, 1927, his son David Lee Arnold was born at Ft. Riley. In 1928 Arnold wrote and published six books of juvenile fiction, the "Bill Bruce Series," whose objective was to interest young people in flying.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Fechet intervened with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Charles P. Summerall to have Arnold's exile ended by assigning him in August 1928 to the Army's Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth. The year-long course was unpleasant for Arnold because of doctrinal differences with the school's commandant, Major General Edward L. King, but Arnold graduated with high marks in June 1929. Arnold was slated for assignment to the Air Corps Training Center in San Antonio following graduation, but Brigadier General Lahm, the commander of the ACTC, strongly opposed it, possibly recalling their 1917 dispute. Instead Arnold commanded the Fairfield Air Service Depot, Ohio. In 1930 he also became Chief of the Field Service Section, Air Corps Materiel Division, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on February 1, 1931.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold's parents were made destitute by the bank collapses in 1929, and on January 18, 1931, his mother died of a sudden heart attack. Arnold struggled emotionally with being absent from his parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration the year before and with the depression afflicting his father after her death. A contemporary biographer of Arnold notes that not until after his mother's funeral did Bee begin use of the sobriquet "Hap" in place of "Sunny" when addressing him, apparently to avoid the "constant reminder" of his mother that the latter name might bring. Arnold himself eschewed the use of "Sunny" in his personal correspondence after May 1931, signing himself as "Hap" Arnold from that point forward.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold took command of March Field, California, where Spaatz had just assumed command of the grandiose-sounding but tiny 1st Wing, on November 27, 1931. Arnold's responsibilities included refurbishing the base into a showcase installation, which required that he resolve strained relations with the community. He accomplished this by having his officers join local social service organizations and by a series of well-publicized relief efforts. Arnold took command of the 1st Wing himself on January 4, 1933, which flew food-drops during blizzards in the winter of 1932–33, assisted in relief work during the Long Beach earthquake of March 10, 1933, and established camps for 3,000 boys of the Civilian Conservation Corps. He organized a high-profile series of aerial reviews that featured visits from Hollywood celebrities and aviation notables. In August 1932, Arnold began acquisition of portions of Rogers Dry Lake as a bombing and gunnery range for his units, a site that later became Edwards Air Force Base.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: In 1934, Chief of Air Corps Benjamin D. Foulois named Arnold to command one of the three military zones of the controversial Army Air Corps Mail Operation, with a temporary headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. Arnold's pilots performed well and his own reputation was untouched by the fiasco. Later that same year he won his second Mackay Trophy, when he led ten Martin B-10B bombers on an flight from Bolling Field to Fairbanks, Alaska, and back. Overly credited with its success, he nonetheless lobbied for recognition of the other airmen who took part, but the deputy chief of staff ignored his recommendations. His reputation among some of his peers was tarnished by resentment when he was belatedly awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for the flight in 1937.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: On March 1, 1935, General Headquarters Air Force was activated to control all combat aviation units of the Air Corps based in the United States, although it was not subordinate to the Chief of Air Corps. While a significant step towards an independent air force, this dual authority created serious problems of unity of command for the next six years. GHQAF commander Major General Frank Andrews tapped Arnold to retain command of its 1st Wing, which now carried with it a temporary promotion to the rank of brigadier general, effective March 2, 1935.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: On December 23, 1935, new Army Chief of Staff General Malin Craig summoned Arnold to Washington. He and Arnold had become personal friends and golfing partners during Craig's command of the Ninth Corps Area in 1933. Foulois had retired under fire in the wake of the Air Mail scandal and allegations of corruption in Air Corps procurement, and the new chief, Major General Oscar Westover, had asked Craig for Arnold to fill the vacant assistant chief position. Over Arnold's protests, and despite a left-handed recommendation by Secretary of War George Dern, who recalled Arnold's close association with Billy Mitchell, Craig made him Assistant Chief of Air Corps, responsible for procurement and supply, to deal with the political struggles over them from the Foulois years. In effect, however, Arnold had "switched sides" in the struggle between GHQ Air Force and the Air Corps.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Westover was killed in an air crash at Burbank, California, on September 21, 1938. Prior vacancies in the office had been filled by an incumbent assistant chief, and Arnold's appointment to succeed Westover seemed automatic since he was well qualified. Yet the appointment was delayed when a faction developed supporting the appointment of Andrews that included two members of the White House staff, press secretary Stephen Early and military adviser Colonel Edwin M. Watson. A rumor circulated through the White House that Arnold was a "drunkard". In his memoirs, Arnold recorded that he enlisted the help of Harry Hopkins to attack the drinking rumors, but more recent research asserts that Craig threatened to resign as Army chief of staff if Arnold was not appointed. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Arnold as Chief of Air Corps on September 29, which carried with it the rank of major general. To repair his relationship with the Andrews faction, most of whom were part of GHQ Air Force, he selected its chief of staff, Colonel Walter G. Kilner, to fill the Assistant Chief of Air Corps vacancy. After Charles Lindbergh publicly lent his support in April 1939 for production of a very long range bomber in large numbers to counter Nazi production, development of which had been prohibited since June 1938 by the Secretary of War, Arnold appointed Kilner to head a board to make appropriate recommendations to end the R&D moratorium.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold encouraged research and development efforts, among his projects the B-17 and the concept of Jet-assisted takeoff. To encourage the use of civilian expertise, the California Institute of Technology became a beneficiary of Air Corps funding and Theodore von Kármán of its Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory developed a good working relationship with Arnold that led to the creation of the Scientific Advisory Group in 1944. Arnold characterized his wartime philosophy of research and development as: "Sacrifice some quality to get sufficient quantity to supply all fighting units. Never follow the mirage, looking for the perfect airplane, to a point where fighting squadrons are deficient in numbers of fighting planes." To that end he concentrated on rapid returns from R&D investments, exploiting proven technologies to provide operational solutions to counter the rising threat of the Axis Powers. Arnold also pushed for jet propulsion, especially after the British shared their plans of Whittle's turbojet during his visit to Britain in April 1941. The proposal was immediately opposed by the General Staff in all respects. He and Eaker collaborated on three books promoting airpower: "This Flying Game" (1936, reprinted 1943), "Winged Victory" (1941), and "Army Flyer" (1942).


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: In March 1939 Arnold was appointed to head the Air Board by Secretary of War Harry Woodring, to recommend doctrine and organization of Army airpower to the chief of staff. While the board's report concluded that airpower was indispensable to the defense of the hemisphere, stressed the need for long-range bombers, and became the basis for the first Air Corps field manual, it was a "considerable attenuation" of the doctrine being developed at the Air Corps Tactical School. Arnold submitted the findings to George C. Marshall, newly appointed as chief of staff, on September 1, 1939, the day Nazi Germany invaded Poland. When Marshall requested a reorganization study from the Air Corps, Arnold submitted a proposal on October 5, 1940, that would create an air staff, unify the air arm under one commander, and grant it autonomy with the ground and supply forces.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Congress repealed the Neutrality Act in November 1939 to permit the selling of aircraft to the belligerents, causing Arnold concern that shipments of planes to the Allies would slow delivery to the Air Corps, particularly since control of the allotment of aircraft production had been given to the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department in December 1938, and by extension, to Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., a White House favorite. Arnold experienced two years of difficulties with Morgenthau, who was prone to denigrate the leadership of the War Department and Air Corps. Their conflict peaked on March 12, 1940, when Arnold's public complaint about increases in shipments brought a personal warning from Roosevelt that "there were places to which officers who did not 'play ball' might be sent, such as Guam," and got him banished from the White House for eight months.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: The disfavor shown Arnold by Roosevelt reached a turning point in March 1941 when new Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, a supporter of Arnold, submitted his name with two others for promotion to the permanent rank of major general. Roosevelt refused to send the list to the Senate for confirmation because of Arnold's nomination, and his forced retirement from the service seemed imminent to both Stimson and Marshall. Stimson and Harry Hopkins arranged for Arnold, accompanied by Major Elwood "Pete" Quesada, to travel to England for three weeks in April to evaluate British aircraft production needs and to provide an up-to-date strategic analysis. One outcome of the visit was the setting up of a program for training British pilots in the US, which subsequently became known as the Arnold Scheme. Arnold's meeting with Roosevelt to report his findings was judged as impressively cogent and optimistic, but the president ruminated on Arnold's future for three weeks before submitting his name and the others to the Senate. From that point on, however, Arnold's "position in the White House was secure." His importance to Roosevelt in setting an airpower agenda was demonstrated when Arnold was invited to the Atlantic Conference in Newfoundland in August, the first of seven such summits that he, not Morgenthau, would attend.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: The division of authority between the Air Corps and the GHQ Air Force was removed with promulgation of Army Regulation 95–5, creating the United States Army Air Forces on June 20, 1941, only two days before Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. Arnold became Chief of the Army Air Forces and acting "Deputy Chief of Staff for Air" with authority over both the Air Corps and Air Force Combat Command (successor to GHQAF). While this provided the air arm with a staff of its own and brought the entire organization under the command of one general, it failed to grant the degree of autonomy sought. By consensus between Marshall and Arnold, debate on separation of the Air Force into a service co-equal with the Army and Navy was postponed until after the war.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: In July Roosevelt asked for production requirements to defeat potential enemies, and Arnold endorsed a request by his new Air War Plans Division to submit an air war plan. The assessment, designated AWPD/1, defined four tasks for the AAF: defense of the Western Hemisphere, an initial defensive strategy against Japan, a strategic air offensive against Germany, and a later strategic air offensive against Japan in prelude of invasion. It also planned for an expansion of the AAF to 60,000 aircraft and 2.1 million men. AWPD/1 called for 24 groups (approximately 750 airplanes) of very long range B-29 bombers to be based in Northern Ireland and Egypt for use against Nazi Germany, and for production of sufficient Consolidated B-36s for intercontinental bombing missions of Germany.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Soon after U.S. entry in the war, Arnold was promoted to lieutenant general on December 15, 1941. On March 9, 1942, after the creation of the AAF failed to define clear channels of authority for the air forces, the Army adopted the functional reorganization that Arnold had advocated in October 1940. Acting on an executive order from Roosevelt, the War Department granted the AAF full autonomy, equal to and entirely separate from the Army Ground Forces and Services of Supply. The Air Force Combat Command and the Office of the Chief of Air Corps were abolished, and Arnold became AAF Commanding General and an "ex officio" member of both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combined Chiefs of Staff.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: In response to an August 1942 directive, Arnold had the AWPD revise its estimates. AWPD/42 resulted, calling for 75,000 aircraft and 2.7 million men, and increased the production of aircraft for use by other allies. AWPD/42 reaffirmed earlier strategic priorities, but increased the list of industrial targets from 23 to 177, ranking the German Luftwaffe first and its submarine force second in importance of destruction. It also directed that the B-29 bomber not be employed in Europe because of problems in its development, but instead that the B-29 program's deployment be concentrated in the Far East to destroy Japanese military power and combustible cities.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold was responsible for approving the Army Air Forces Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD). It was approved by September 14, 1942, and directed by aviator Jacqueline Cochran.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor Arnold began to carry out AWPD/1. The primary strategic bombing force against Nazi Germany would be the Eighth Air Force, and he named Spaatz to command it and Eaker to head its Bomber Command. Other Arnold protégés eventually filled key positions in the strategic bombing forces, including Haywood S. Hansell, Laurence S. Kuter, and James H. Doolittle.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Despite protecting his strategic bombing force from demands of other services and allies, Arnold was forced to divert resources from the Eighth to support operations in North Africa, crippling the Eighth in its infancy and nearly killing it. Eaker (now Eighth Air Force commander) found from experience that the pre-war doctrine of daylight precision bombing, developed at the Air Corps Tactical School as a foundation for separating the Air Force from the Army, was mistaken in its tenet that heavily armed bombers could reach any target without the support of long-range escort fighters. Early in 1943 he began requesting more fighters and jettisonable fuel tanks to increase their range, in addition to repeated requests to increase the size of his small bombing force.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Heavy losses in the summer and fall of 1943 on deep penetration missions intensified Eaker's requests. Arnold, under pressure and impatient for results, ignored Eaker's findings and placed the blame on a lack of aggressiveness by bomber commanders. This came at a time when General Dwight D. Eisenhower was putting together his command group for the invasion of Europe, and Arnold approved Eisenhower's request to replace Eaker with his own commanders, Spaatz and Doolittle. Ironically, the very items Eaker requested—a larger bomber force, drop tanks, and P-51 fighters—accompanied the change of command and made the Eighth Air Force decisive in defeating Germany using the daylight bombing doctrine.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: The change in command at Eighth Air Force, particularly involving the relief of a friend or protégé, was just one of many that exemplified a ruthlessness Arnold developed to get results. In 1942, Brigadier General Walter R. Weaver, acting chief of the Air Corps, had his job eliminated and was relegated to a technical training command. George C. Kenney relieved Jacob E. Fickel in command of Fourth Air Force and later that same year replaced former Chief of the Air Corps George H. Brett as Southwest Pacific air commander. In the B-29 campaign, Curtis E. LeMay relieved Kenneth B. Wolfe in India in July 1944, and later Hansell on Guam in January 1945.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: With the strategic bombing crisis resolved in Europe, Arnold placed full emphasis on completion of the development and deployment of the B-29 Very Long Range (VLR) bomber to attack Japan. As early as 1942, Arnold planned to make himself commanding general of the Twentieth Air Force. This unique command arrangement may also have contributed to his health problems (see below), but after the negative experiences of building an effective bombing force against Germany, and realizing the consequences of failure against Japan, Arnold concluded that, absent any unity of command in the Pacific theaters, administrative decisions regarding B-29 bomber operations could best be handled personally. However, theater commanders Douglas MacArthur, Chester Nimitz, and Joseph Stilwell all coveted the B-29s for tactical support, to which Arnold was adamantly opposed as a diversion from strategic policy. He convinced not only Marshall, but also Chief of Naval Operations Ernest J. King, that the Twentieth was unique in that its operations cut across the jurisdiction of all three theaters, and thus should report directly to the Joint Chiefs with Arnold acting as their executive agent. In February 1944 President Roosevelt agreed and approved the arrangement.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: The VLR program had been plagued with a seemingly unending series of development problems, subjecting it and Arnold to much criticism in the press and from skeptical field commanders. The B-29 was the key component of the AAF's fourth strategic priority, since no other land-based bomber was capable of reaching the Japanese homeland, but by February 1944, the XX Bomber Command, slated to begin Operation Matterhorn on June 1, had virtually no flight time yet above an altitude of .


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: With a designated overseas deployment date of April 15, 1944, Arnold intervened in the situation personally by flying to Kansas on March 8, 1944. For three days he toured training bases involved in the modification program. He was distressed at his findings of shortages, and of work failures. On the spot he made Maj. Gen. Bennett E. Meyers, a military procurement officer accompanying him, the coordinator of the program. Meyers succeeded in the "." Despite labor problems, and blizzard weather, a complete bomb group was ready for deployment by April 9. The mechanical problems of the B-29, however, had not been resolved. During early combat operations many new ones were identified. Arnold felt the pressure of achieving the goals of AWPD/1, and of justifying, by results, a very expensive technological project. Arnold needed the B-29 to provide the delivery platform for the highly classified atomic bomb, if the Manhattan Project succeeded. B-29 operations against Japanese targets in China and Southeast Asia began in June 1944, and from the outset produced far less positive results than expected.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: The difficulties of the Twentieth Air Force's campaign against Japan mirrored those of the Eighth Air Force's against Germany. With characteristic impatience, Arnold quickly relieved Wolfe, the B-29 commander in China, after less than a month of operations, and replaced him with LeMay. A second B-29 command began operations from bases in the Mariana Islands in November. Brigadier General Haywood S. Hansell, one of the architects of AWPD/1 and AWPD/42, encountered even more command problems than had Wolfe or LeMay. After two months of ostensibly poor results, but mostly because he resisted a campaign of firebombing attacks against Japanese population centers favored by Arnold and his chief of staff, Lauris Norstad, Arnold decided he too needed replacing. He shut down operations from China, consolidated all the B-29s in the Marianas, and replaced Hansell with LeMay in January 1945 as commander of XXI Bomber Command.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Between 1943 and 1945 Arnold experienced four heart attacks severe enough to require hospitalization. In addition to being by nature intensely impatient, Arnold considered that his personal presence was required wherever a crisis might be, and as a result he traveled extensively and for long hours under great stress during the war, aggravating what may have been a pre-existing coronary condition. His extended trips and inspection tours were to the United Kingdom in April 1941 and again in May 1942; the South Pacific in September 1942, North Africa and China in January–February 1943; the Middle East and Italy (where his party came under artillery fire) in November–December 1943; London and Normandy accompanying Marshall in June 1944; Germany and Italy in April–May 1945; the Western Pacific in June 1945; and Potsdam in July 1945. A lesser but more frequent factor may have been his difficulty in handling inter-service politics, particularly with the Navy, which steadfastly refused to recognize him as a chief of staff or his subordinate staff as equals. On Guam, with knowledge of the approaching atomic bomb decision, he negotiated with Nimitz over the Navy's objections to basing the headquarters of the strategic air forces on the island.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold's first heart attack occurred February 28, 1943, just after his return from the Casablanca Conference and China. During that trip, "Argonaut", the B-17 bomber transporting his party, became lost for several hours over Japanese-held territory trying to "fly the Hump" at night. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Hospital for several days, then took three weeks leave at the Coral Gables Biltmore Hotel in Florida, which had been converted into a convalescent hospital. U.S. Army regulations then required that he leave the service, but President Roosevelt waived the requirement in April after he demonstrated his recovery, and on the condition that the President be provided with monthly updates on Arnold's health.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold's second heart attack occurred just a month later, on May 10, 1943, and resulted in a 10-day stay in Walter Reed. Against the wishes of Marshall, he gave the commencement address for the Class of June 1943 at West Point, where his son Bruce was graduating. His third heart attack, less severe than the first two, occurred exactly a year after the second, on May 10, 1944, under the strain of the B-29 problems. Arnold took a month's leave, returning to duty by flying with Marshall to London on June 7 for a conference and an inspection of Omaha Beach.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold's last wartime heart attack came on January 17, 1945, just days after he replaced Hansell with LeMay. Arnold had not gone into his office for three days, and refused to permit the Air Force's chief flight surgeon to examine him. The flight surgeon enlisted a general and personal friend of Arnold's to inquire on his condition, after which Arnold was again flown to Coral Gables, Florida, and placed under 24-hour care for nine days. Arnold again was allowed to remain in the service, but under conditions that amounted to light duty. He continued to tour air bases in both theaters. Arnold was returning by C-54 from Italy to Miami for a checkup when he received the news of the German surrender on May 7, 1945. On July 16 he relinquished command of the Twentieth Air Force to LeMay.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold received honorary doctorates from Pennsylvania Military College and the University of Southern California in 1941, and from Iowa Wesleyan College in 1942. Post-war honors included doctorates from Hahnemann College, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Columbia University, the University of California, and Ursinus College. Arnold also received 26 decorations and awards from foreign countries honoring his service in World War II.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: On March 19, 1943, Arnold was promoted (wartime) to full general, and on December 21, 1944, appointed a five-star General of the Army under Public Law , placing him fourth in Army rank seniority, behind only Marshall, MacArthur, and Eisenhower.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: In 1945, Arnold directed the founding of Project RAND (which became the RAND Corporation, a non-profit think tank) with $10,000,000 of funding left over from World War II. Initially tasked "to connect military planning with research and development decisions," RAND widely expanded in its scope beyond its original mission.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: After a trip to South America in January 1946, in which he developed a heart arrhythmia severe enough to cancel the remainder of the trip, Arnold left active duty in the AAF on February 28, 1946, (his official date of retirement was June 30, 1946). On March 23, 1946, Public Law 79–333 made the promotion to General of the Army permanent for all those holding it, and awarded full pay and allowances for those on the retired list. He was succeeded by Spaatz, who also became first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force when it became a separate service on September 18, 1947.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold retired to a ranch near Sonoma, California, and signed a contract with Harper & Brothers to write his memoirs, "Global Mission". Unlike George S. Patton, who enjoyed independent wealth, or colleagues who had taken positions in government, such as Marshall (appointed Secretary of State), Arnold had no source of income beyond his retirement pay and allowances, and was not healthy enough to continue service. His autobiography was an attempt to provide financial security for his wife after his death, and during the writing of it he suffered his fifth heart attack in January 1948, hospitalizing him for three months.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: On May 7, 1949, changed the designation of Arnold's final rank and grade to that of General of the Air Force, and he remains the only person to have held the rank. He is also the only person to hold five-star rank in two U.S. military services. He died on January 15, 1950, at his home in Sonoma. He was given a state funeral in Washington, D.C. that included rare services held in Arlington Memorial Amphitheater, and he was buried in Section 34, plot number 44-A, of Arlington National Cemetery. Robert A. Lovett, with whom Arnold worked closely during the war in his capacity as Assistant Secretary of War for Air, stated that Arnold had been as much a casualty of war as if he had been injured in the line of duty.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: All three of Arnold's surviving sons were graduates of West Point (Henry Harley Jr., 1939; Willam Bruce, June 1943; and David Lee, 1949) and reached the grade of colonel. The two youngest served in the United States Air Force and are interred near their father's burial site at Arlington National Cemetery.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: General H. H. Arnold Field (Athletic Field) at Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, Pennsylvania, 19003, is named for Arnold.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee, and the Arnold Engineering Development Complex 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.


title: Henry H. Arnold

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


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: The Civil Air Patrol has named an award that accompanies the rank of Cadet Airman First Class after him, being known as the Hap Arnold Award.


title: Henry H. Arnold

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


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: 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, which he founded, awards a college scholarship in his name to the dependents of Air Force members or retirees.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: On December 21, 1944, Arnold was appointed to the rank of General of the Army, placing him in the company of Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Marshall, and Douglas MacArthur, the only four men to achieve the rank in World War II, and along with Omar Bradley, one of only five men to achieve the rank since the August 5, 1888 death of Philip Sheridan, and the only five men to hold the rank as a Five-star general. The rank was created by an Act of Congress on a temporary basis when Public Law 78–482 was passed on December 14, 1944, as a temporary rank, subject to reversion to permanent rank six months after the end of the war. The temporary rank was then declared permanent March 23, 1946 by Public Law 333 of the 79th Congress, which also awarded full pay and allowances in the grade to those on the retired list. It was created to give the most senior American commanders parity of rank with their British counterparts holding the ranks of field marshal and admiral of the fleet. This second General of the Army rank is not the same as the post-Civil War era version because of its purpose and five stars.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: 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.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: During the last mission of the Space Shuttle "Endeavour", 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.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: In the Great Bend Municipal Airport, the B-29 Memorial Plaza display a commemorative plaque for his contribution to the B-29 program.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: 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.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: 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.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold Heights, California is named in his honor, as is Arnold Drive, a main arterial road running through Sonoma Valley near his ranch.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Hap Arnold Boulevard, the main access road to Tobyhanna Army Depot in Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, is named in his honor.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: In a rare depiction on film, Arnold was sympathetically portrayed in the 1954 film "The Glenn Miller Story", played by Barton MacLane. He was portrayed by Robert Brubaker in The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell. In 1977, he was again portrayed on film by actor Walter O. Miles in the two-part opus "The Amazing Howard Hughes", starring Tommy Lee Jones as Hughes.


title: Henry H. Arnold

text: Arnold appeared in a speaking role as himself in "Men of the Sky", a Technicolor propaganda short made by Warner Brothers and released on July 25, 1942. He appears as himself in the first eight minutes of the twenty-minute short, filmed in May 1942 at Merced Army Air Field, California. In the short, he alights from his C-42 staff transport at the training base to preside at a graduation ceremony for pilots completing their flight training. Arnold delivers a short address and speaks with each of four pilots (actors Tod Andrews, Don DeFore, Ray Montgomery, and Dave Willock) as he pins on their wings.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is a gonadotropin, a glycoprotein polypeptide hormone. FSH is synthesized and secreted by the gonadotropic cells of the anterior pituitary gland and regulates the development, growth, pubertal maturation, and reproductive processes of the body. FSH and luteinizing hormone (LH) work together in the reproductive system.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: FSH is a 35.5 kDa glycoprotein heterodimer, consisting of two polypeptide units, alpha and beta. Its structure is similar to those of luteinizing hormone (LH), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). The alpha subunits of the glycoproteins LH, FSH, TSH, and hCG are identical and consist of 96 amino acids, while the beta subunits vary. Both subunits are required for biological activity. FSH has a beta subunit of 111 amino acids (FSH β), which confers its specific biologic action, and is responsible for interaction with the follicle-stimulating hormone receptor. The sugar portion of the hormone is covalently bonded to asparagine, and is composed of N-acetylgalactosamine, mannose, N-acetylglucosamine, galactose, and sialic acid.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: In humans, the gene for the alpha subunit is located at cytogenetic location 6q14.3. It is expressed in two cell types, most notably the basophils of the anterior pituitary. The gene for the FSH beta subunit is located on chromosome 11p13, and is expressed in gonadotropes of the pituitary cells, controlled by GnRH, inhibited by inhibin, and enhanced by activin.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: FSH regulates the development, growth, pubertal maturation and reproductive processes of the human body.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: Control of FSH release from the pituitary gland is unknown. Low frequency gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) pulses increase FSH mRNA levels in the rat, but is not directly correlated with an increase in circulating FSH. GnRH has been shown to play an important role in the secretion of FSH, with hypothalamic-pituitary disconnection leading to a cessation of FSH. GnRH administration leads to a return of FSH secretion. FSH is subject to oestrogen feed-back from the gonads via the hypothalamic pituitary gonadal axis.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: FSH stimulates the growth and recruitment of immature ovarian follicles in the ovary. In early (small) antral follicles, FSH is the major survival factor that rescues the small antral follicles (2–5 mm in diameter for humans) from apoptosis (programmed death of the somatic cells of the follicle and oocyte). In the luteal-follicle phase transition period the serum levels of progesterone and estrogen (primarily estradiol) decrease and no longer suppress the release of FSH, consequently FSH peaks at about day three (day one is the first day of menstrual flow). The cohort of small antral follicles is normally sufficient in number to produce enough Inhibin B to lower FSH serum levels.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: In addition, there is evidence that gonadotropin surge-attenuating factor produced by small follicles during the first half of the follicle phase also exerts a negative feedback on pulsatile luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion amplitude, thus allowing a more favorable environment for follicle growth and preventing premature luteinization.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: As a woman nears perimenopause, the number of small antral follicles recruited in each cycle diminishes and consequently insufficient Inhibin B is produced to fully lower FSH and the serum level of FSH begins to rise. Eventually, the FSH level becomes so high that downregulation of FSH receptors occurs and by postmenopause any remaining small secondary follicles no longer have FSH nor LH receptors.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: When the follicle matures and reaches 8–10 mm in diameter it starts to secrete significant amounts of estradiol. Normally in humans only one follicle becomes dominant and survives to grow to 18–30 mm in size and ovulate, the remaining follicles in the cohort undergo atresia. The sharp increase in estradiol production by the dominant follicle (possibly along with a decrease in gonadotrophin surge-attenuating factor) cause a positive effect on the hypothalamus and pituitary and rapid GnRH pulses occur and an LH surge results.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: The increase in serum estradiol levels cause a decrease in FSH production by inhibiting GnRH production in the hypothalamus.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: The decrease in serum FSH level causes the smaller follicles in the current cohort to undergo atresia as they lack sufficient sensitivity to FSH to survive. Occasionally two follicles reach the 10 mm stage at the same time by chance and as both are equally sensitive to FSH both survive and grow in the low FSH environment and thus two ovulations can occur in one cycle possibly leading to non-identical (dizygotic) twins.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: FSH stimulates primary spermatocytes to undergo the first division of meiosis, to form secondary spermatocytes.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: FSH enhances the production of androgen-binding protein by the Sertoli cells of the testes by binding to FSH receptors on their basolateral membranes, and is critical for the initiation of spermatogenesis.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: Follicle stimulating hormone is typically measured in the early follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, typically day three to five, counted from last menstruation. At this time, the levels of estradiol (E2) and progesterone are at the lowest point of the menstrual cycle. FSH levels in this time is often called "basal FSH" levels, to distinguish from the increased levels when approaching ovulation.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: FSH is measured in International Units (IU). For Human Urinary FSH, one IU is defined as the amount of FSH that has an activity corresponding to 0.11388 mg of pure Human Urinary FSH. For recombinant FSH, one IU corresponds to approximately 0.065 to 0.075 µg of a "fill-by-mass" product.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: The mean values for women before ovulation are around (3.8-8.8) mUI/mL. After ovulation these levels drop to between (1.8-5.1) mUI/mL. At the mid of the menstrual cycle it reaches its highest value, between (4.5-22.5) mIU / mL. During menopause, the values goes up even more, between (16.74-113.59) mIU / mL.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: The most common reason for high serum FSH concentration is in a female who is undergoing or has recently undergone menopause. High levels of FSH indicate that the normal restricting feedback from the gonad is absent, leading to an unrestricted pituitary FSH production. FSH may contribute to postmenopausal osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: If high FSH levels occur during the reproductive years, it is abnormal. Conditions with high FSH levels include:


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: Most of these conditions are associated with subfertility and/or infertility. Therefore, high FSH levels are an indication of subfertility and/or infertility.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: Diminished secretion of FSH can result in failure of gonadal function (hypogonadism). This condition is typically manifested in males as failure in production of normal numbers of sperm. In females, cessation of reproductive cycles is commonly observed.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: Isolated FSH deficiency due to mutations in the gene for β-subunit of FSH is rare with 13 cases reported in the literature up to 2019.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: FSH is used commonly in infertility therapy, mainly for ovarian hyperstimulation as part of IVF. In some cases, it is used in ovulation induction for reversal of anovulation as well.


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: FSH is available mixed with LH activity in various menotropins including more purified forms of urinary gonadotropins such as Menopur, as well as without LH activity as recombinant FSH (Gonapure, Gonal F, Follistim, Follitropin alpha).


title: Follicle-stimulating hormone

text: Elevated FSH receptor levels have been detected in the endothelia of tumor vasculature in a very wide range of solid tumors. FSH binding is thought to upregulate neovascularization via at least two mechanisms – one in the VEGF pathway, and the other VEGF independent – related to the development of umbilical vasculature when physiological. This presents possible use of FSH and FSH-receptor antagonists as an anti-tumor angiogenesis therapy (cf. avastin for current anti-VEGF approaches).


title: AEW TBS Championship

text: The AEW TBS Championship is a women's professional wrestling television championship created and promoted by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Established on October 6, 2021, it is the secondary championship of the promotion's female division. It is named after the TBS television network, which currently airs AEW's flagship program, "Dynamite". The current and inaugural champion is Jade Cargill, who is in her first reign.


title: AEW TBS Championship

text: In March 2020, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) established the AEW TNT Championship as a secondary championship for the men's division, named after the TNT television network, owned by WarnerMedia. In May 2021, it was announced that AEW's flagship program, "Dynamite", would be moving from TNT to the network's sister channel, TBS, also owned by WarnerMedia, in January 2022, while AEW's other core program, "Rampage", would remain on TNT. Despite "Dynamite" moving to TBS, wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer reported that the TNT Championship would not be renamed. AEW executive and wrestler Cody Rhodes also affirmed that there were no plans to rename the championship and that there were no plans for a separate TBS Championship for male wrestlers. It was later reported that the promotion would introduce a secondary women's championship and it would instead be called the TBS Championship.


title: AEW TBS Championship

text: Prior to the October 6, 2021, second anniversary episode of "Dynamite", AEW President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Khan said there would be a major announcement made on the show. During the episode, AEW commentator Tony Schiavone and referee Aubrey Edwards officially unveiled the AEW TBS Championship as a secondary championship for the women's division. AEW announced that the inaugural champion would be determined by a single-elimination tournament. The tournament bracket was revealed on the October 22 episode of "Rampage" with a 12-woman field. The tournament itself began on the October 23 episode of "Dynamite" and concluded on the January 5, 2022, episode, the show's debut broadcast on TBS. In the tournament final, Jade Cargill defeated Ruby Soho to become the inaugural TBS Champion.


title: AEW TBS Championship

text: On the October 22, 2021, episode of "Rampage", the participants of the inaugural TBS Championship Tournament were revealed. Tony Khan announced on "Busted Open Radio" that the tournament would have a 12-woman field with four of them receiving a first round bye.


title: AEW TBS Championship

text: The TBS Championship belt design is nearly identical to the men's TNT Championship, with a couple of notable differences. The belt has six plates on a black leather strap. The center plate prominently features a relief TBS network logo at the center. Above the TBS logo is AEW's logo, while below the TBS logo is a blue banner that says "CHAMPION" (countering the red banner on the TNT title). The two inner side plates are the same as the TNT Championship, featuring "Tara on Techwood", 1050 Techwood Drive in Atlanta, the building that was the original home of both TNT and TBS. Also like the TNT title, the two outer side plates feature AEW's logo, while a third smaller side plate on the far right side also features the promotion's logo. This and the original TNT belt it was based on were originally commissioned by AEW and designed by Red Leather, and the actual construction of the belt was completed by Rey Rey Championship Belts.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: Bravo Two Zero was the call sign of an eight-man British Army Special Air Service (SAS) patrol, deployed into Iraq during the First Gulf War in January 1991. According to Chris Ryan's account, the patrol was given the task of gathering intelligence, finding a good lying-up position (LUP), setting up an observation post (OP), and monitoring enemy movements, especially Scud missile launchers on the Iraqi Main Supply Route (MSR) between Baghdad and North-Western Iraq; however, according to Andy McNab's account, the task was to find and destroy Iraqi Scud missile launchers along a stretch of the MSR.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: The patrol has been the subject of several books. Accounts in the first two books, one in 1993 by patrol commander Steven Mitchell (writing under the pseudonym Andy McNab), "Bravo Two Zero", and the other in 1995 by Colin Armstrong (writing under the pseudonym Chris Ryan), "The One That Got Away", do not always correspond with one another about the events. Both accounts also conflict with SAS's Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) at the time of the patrol, Peter Ratcliffe, in his 2000 memoir, "Eye of the Storm". Another book by a member of the patrol, Mike Coburn, titled "Soldier Five", was published in 2004.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: Michael Asher, a former soldier with the SAS, went to Iraq and traced in person the route of the patrol and interviewed local Iraqi witnesses to its actions; afterward, he alleged that much of Mitchell's "Bravo Two Zero" and Armstrong's "The One That Got Away" were fabrication. His findings were published in a British television documentary filmed by Channel 4 Television, and in a 2002 book entitled "The Real Bravo Two Zero". Both Armstrong and Mitchell reacted angrily to the documentary and Asher's conclusions.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: Mitchell was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions during the mission, whilst Armstrong and two other patrol members (Steven Lane and Robert Consiglio), were awarded the Military Medal.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: In January 1991, during the prelude to the Coalition ground invasion of Iraq, B Squadron 22 SAS were stationed at a forward operating base in Saudi Arabia. The squadron provided a number of long-range, similarly tasked teams deep into Iraq including three eight-man patrols: "Bravo One Zero", "Bravo Two Zero" and "Bravo Three Zero". Asher lists one of the three patrols as "Bravo One Niner", though it is not clear whether this is one of the same three listed by Ryan. (Peter Ratcliffe (RSM at the time) on his book "Eye of the Storm" also mentions the first patrol as "Bravo One Nine" and the only patrol that used vehicles with Bravo Three Zero aborting their mission immediately on seeing the terrain they had to operate in. This is the exact opposite to what is mentioned in Des Powell's book "Bravo Three Zero" in which his patrol (Bravo three zero) was the one with the vehicles and Bravo one zero the one that aborted.)


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: On the night of 22/23 January, the patrol were transported into Iraqi airspace by a RAF Chinook helicopter, along with Bravo Three Zero and their Land Rover 110 vehicles. Unlike Bravo Three Zero, the patrol had decided not to take vehicles. According to McNab's account, the patrol walked during the first night to the proposed location of the observation post. However, both Ryan's and Coburn's accounts put the distance at . Eyewitness accounts of Bedouin tribesmen and Asher's re-creation support the Ryan/Coburn estimate of . Ryan states the patrol was intentionally dropped only from the observation post because of heavy pack weights.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: According to both Ryan and McNab, the weight of their equipment required the patrol to "shuttle" the equipment to the observation post. Four members would walk approximately 300 m, then drop their bergens and wait. The next four would move up and drop their bergens, then the first four would return for their jerry cans of water and bring them back to the group, followed by the second four doing the same. In this manner, each member of the patrol covered three times the distance from the drop off to the observation post.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: Soon after the patrol landed on Iraqi soil, Lane discovered that they had communication problems and could not receive messages on the patrol's radio. McNab later claimed that the patrol had been issued incorrect radio frequencies; however, a 2002 BBC report discovered that there was no error with the frequencies because the patrol's transmissions had been noted in the SAS daily record log. Ratcliffe lays the blame for the faulty radios on McNab as the patrol commander; it was his job to make sure the patrol's equipment was working.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: In late afternoon of 24 January, the patrol was discovered by a herd of sheep and a young shepherd. Believing themselves compromised, the patrol decided to withdraw, leaving behind excess equipment. As they were preparing to leave, they heard what they thought to be a tank approaching their position. The patrol took up defensive positions, prepared their LAW rockets, and waited for it to come into sight. However, the vehicle turned out to be a bulldozer, which reversed rapidly after seeing the patrol. Realising that they had now definitely been compromised, the patrol withdrew from their position. Shortly afterwards, as they were exfiltrating (according to McNab's account), a firefight with Iraqi armoured personnel carriers and soldiers began.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: In 2001, Asher interviewed the Bedouin family that discovered the patrol. The family stated the patrol had been spotted by the driver of the bulldozer, not the young shepherd. According to the family, they were not sure who the men were and followed them a short distance, eventually firing several warning shots, whereupon the patrol returned fire and moved away. Asher's investigation into the events, the terrain, and position of the Iraqi Army did not support McNab's version of events, and excludes an attack by Iraqi soldiers and armoured personnel carriers. Coburn's version, "Soldier Five", partially supports McNab's version of events (specifically the presence of one armoured personnel carrier) and describes being fired upon by a 12.7 mm DShK heavy machine gun and numerous Iraqi soldiers. In Ryan's version, "[MacGown] also saw an armoured car carrying a .50 caliber machine gun pull up. Somehow, I never saw that." Ryan later estimated that he fired 70 rounds during the incident.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: British standard operating procedure (SOP) states that in the case of an emergency or no radio contact, a patrol should return to their original infiltration point, where a helicopter will land briefly every 24 hours. This plan was complicated by the incorrect location of the initial landing site; the patrol reached the designated emergency pickup point, but the helicopter never appeared. Ratcliffe later revealed that this was due to an illness suffered by the pilot while en route, necessitating his abandoning his mission on this occasion.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: Because of a malfunctioning emergency radio that allowed them only to send messages and not receive them, the patrol did not realise that while trying to reach overhead allied jets, they had in fact been heard by a US jet pilot. The jet pilots were aware of the patrol's problems but were unable to raise them. Many sorties were flown to the team's last known position and their expected exfiltration route in an attempt to locate them and to hinder attempts by Iraqi troops trying to capture them.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: Standard operating procedure mandates that before an infiltration of any team behind enemy lines, an exfiltration route should be planned so that members of the patrol know where to go if they get separated or something goes wrong. The plans of the patrol indicated a southern exfiltration route towards Saudi Arabia. According to the SAS daily record log kept during that time, a TACBE transmission from the patrol was received on 24 January. The log read "Bravo Two Zero made TACBE contact again, it was reasonable to assume that they were moving south", though in fact the patrol headed north-west towards the Syrian border. Coburn's account suggests that during the planning phase of the mission, Syria had been the agreed-upon destination should an escape plan need to be implemented. He also suggests that this was on the advice of the officer commanding B Squadron at that time.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: According to Ratcliffe, the change in plan nullified all efforts over the following days by allied forces to locate and rescue the team. McNab has been criticised for refusing advice from superiors to include vehicles in the mission (to be left at an emergency pickup point) which would have facilitated an easier exfiltration. Another SAS team used Land Rovers in this role when they also had to abandon a similar mission. However, it is also suggested that the patrol jointly agreed not to take vehicles because they felt they were too few in number and the vehicles too small (only short-wheelbase Land Rovers were available) to be of use and were ill-suited to a mission that was intended to be conducted from a fixed observation post.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: During the night of 24/25 January, while McNab was trying to contact a passing Coalition aircraft using a TACBE communicator, the patrol inadvertently became separated into two groups. Whilst the others waited for a response on the TACBE, Phillips, Ryan and MacGown continued to move through the darkness. Neither of the two resultant groups followed the standard emergency rendezvous (ERV) procedure they had been trained to follow, and had followed the night before. Instead, both groups independently continued north towards the Syrian border.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: After the separation, Phillips, Ryan and MacGown had two M16/M203 assault rifles and a Browning Hi-Power pistol among them, as well as at least one TACBE, and the night sight around Ryan's neck. McNab, Pring, Lane, Consiglio, and Coburn had their original weapons (three Minimis and two M16/M203s among them), as well as MacGown's Minimi (which McNab was carrying, but soon discarded). The larger group carried at least one TACBE, and the Magellan GPS.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: According to Ryan, he was also carrying a 66 mm LAW rocket which he had struggled to free from his Bergen during the initial contact. According to McNab, however, the only item removed by Ryan from his Bergen was a silver hipflask, and it was McNab who was the only one carrying a 66 after this contact; he stated he left the 66 in the Bergen and was the only one to do so. Despite conflicting accounts, it is possible that Ryan may have in fact eventually ended up with McNab's LAW rocket, an item that Ryan later claimed to have used against an Iraqi "Land-Rover type" vehicle; this event is discounted by Ratcliffe who states that, at the Regimental debrief, "[Ryan] made no mention at all of encountering enemy troops on his trek."


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: On the evening of 25 January, Ryan, MacGown and Phillips left the tank berm they had stayed in during the day and headed north. Phillips was already suffering from hypothermia, and could no longer hold his M16/M203, which was handed to MacGown. As they continued, Phillips' condition worsened to the point where he mistook his black gloves for the colour of his own hands, and began yelling out loud. Eventually, Phillips lost contact with the other two somewhere around 2000 hrs, and died a short time later. According to Ryan and MacGown, they both searched for Phillips for about twenty minutes before deciding to continue without him, while according to General Sir Peter de la Billière, only Ryan searched while MacGown waited. Ryan also indicated that he didn't know Phillips was necessarily dead when he wrote "I hoped to God that [Phillips] was doing the same. That he would find his way down" and later "there were still five to account for", though MacGown admitted he knew Phillips was dead at the time. According to the SAS regimental roll of honour, it states that Phillips died of exposure while evading capture in Iraq on 22 January 1991 at the age of 36.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: At about midday on 26 January, Ryan and MacGown were discovered by an "old" (according to MacGown) goat herder tending a flock of goats. After discussing possibly killing the man, MacGown decided to go with him to locate a vehicle, while Ryan decided it was not safe to do so and remained where he was under the agreement that MacGown would return by 1830 hrs. MacGown took with him Phillips' M16/M203, but left his belt kit, in order to not "cut such an aggressive figure". MacGown walked with the goat herder for about four hours, before encountering a group of men with a Toyota Landcruiser vehicle. According to Ryan, MacGown shot and killed an unarmed Arab as he ran towards the vehicle, followed by two more armed with AK-47s. Without his belt kit, he had run out of ammunition, and was captured as he attempted to take the vehicle.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: According to McNab's secondary account of these events, the old goat herder left MacGown with directions to a hut, where he found two vehicles. After killing a uniformed Iraqi soldier attempting to reach one of the vehicles, "six or seven" more came from the hut, three of whom were killed before MacGown's M16/M203 jammed, and he was captured as he sat in one of the vehicles. According to an interview given by MacGown in 2002, he came across the first soldier near a vehicle: "I brought up my trump card which was 'mohaba' and he said nothing, and I carried on talking and he then made a dash for the vehicle. I shot him in the head. A single shot." As more soldiers came out of the hut, MacGown aimed his rifle and fired but heard a click, indicating he was out of ammunition. It was apparent that Phillips had never reloaded the weapon after the initial contact on 24 January. For reasons unknown to MacGown, the soldiers did not return fire, but instead took him captive.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: During the evening of 26 January, McNab's group of five stole a taxi at gun point by having Consiglio pretend to be wounded in McNab's arms whilst lying on the side of a road. When the car approached, Pring, Lane, and Coburn came up from behind cover and surrounded the vehicle. According to McNab's account, the group evicted all occupants from the taxi and drove until they reached a checkpoint, where Lane shot and killed one soldier, while the others in the group killed two more. According to Ryan's secondhand account, the group were driven to the checkpoint by one of the Iraqi occupants of the taxi. They exited the vehicle with plans to rendezvous on the other side of the checkpoint, but the driver alerted the police, and the group were forced to continue on foot. Asher's investigation, based on evidence from the actual driver of the car, supported Ryan's version of events with no reported armed contact and no reported Iraqi casualties.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: On the morning of 27 January, McNab's group of five came into contact with local civilians and police. Consiglio was shot and killed by armed civilians at approximately 0200 hrs. Lane died of hypothermia later that same morning after swimming the Euphrates with Pring, who along with McNab and Coburn was subsequently captured. During an exchange of gunfire prior to capture, Coburn was shot in both the arm and ankle.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: According to McNab, the four captured patrol members (McNab, Pring, MacGown and the wounded Coburn) were moved numerous times, enduring torture and interrogation at each successive location. According to MacGown, however, "incidents such as teeth extraction and burning with a heated spoon did not happen. It is inconceivable that any such incidents could have occurred without them being discussed or being physically obvious." At the time of the release on 5 March of MacGown and Pring, they were described as "in good shape" by a Red Cross representative.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: Ryan claimed to have made SAS history with the "longest escape and evasion by an SAS trooper or any other soldier" to make it to Syria, covering .


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: Each member of the patrol wore a two-shade Desert DPM uniform with a World War II era sand-coloured desert smock. While the other members had regular issue army boots, Ryan (the only member to avoid eventual capture) wore a pair of £100 "brown Raichle Gore-Tex-lined walking boots."


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: Each member carried a belt kit, Bergen rucksack, one sandbag of food, one sandbag containing two NBC suits, extra ammunition bandoliers and a jerry can of water. "The belt kit contained ammunition, water, food and trauma-care equipment." The rucksack contained of sandbags and observation post equipment, seven days worth of rations, spare batteries for the radio, demolition equipment (including PE4 plastic explosive, detonators, and both Claymore and Elsie anti-personnel mines), and intravenous drips and fluids for emergencies.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: The patrol also had a PRC 319 HF patrol radio carried by Lane, four TACBE communication devices (carried by McNab, Ryan, and two others) to communicate with allied aircraft, a Magellan GPS carried by Coburn, and a KITE night sight carried by MacGown. The total weight of each member's kit was estimated at by McNab and by Ryan.


title: Bravo Two Zero

text: McNab, Phillips, Ryan, and Lane carried M16/M203 assault rifles, while Pring, Consiglio, MacGown, and Coburn carried FN Minimi light support machine guns. Each member carried a 66 mm LAW rocket on his back. Due to a missing shipment within the squadron, Phillips was the only member who carried a backup weapon, a Browning Hi-Power pistol.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: The Kennedy half dollar, first minted in 1964, is a fifty-cent coin currently issued by the United States Mint. Intended as a memorial to the assassinated 35th president of the United States John F. Kennedy, it was authorized by Congress just over a month after his death. Use of existing works by Mint sculptors Gilroy Roberts and Frank Gasparro allowed dies to be prepared quickly, and striking of the new coins began in January 1964.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: The silver coins were hoarded upon their release in March 1964 by collectors and those interested in a memento of the late president. Although the Mint greatly increased production, the denomination was seldom seen in circulation. Continued rises in the price of silver increased the hoarding—many early Kennedy half dollars have been melted for their silver content. Starting with 1965-dated pieces, the percentage of fine silver was reduced from 90% to 40% (silver clad), but even with this change the coin saw little circulation.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: In 1971, silver was eliminated entirely from the coins and production increased, but the half dollar still saw only a minor increase in usage. A special design for the reverse of the half dollar was issued for the United States Bicentennial and was struck in 1975 and 1976. In addition to business strikes, special collector coins were struck for the Bicentennial in silver clad; silver proof sets in which the dime, quarter and half dollar were struck in 90% silver were first minted in 1992. In 2014, a special 50th anniversary edition of the Kennedy half dollar was also struck in 99.99% gold.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: Even though ample supplies of circulating half dollars are readily available from most banks, their circulation is still limited. Production of Kennedy half dollars for general circulation ended in 2001, and from 2002 to 2020, Kennedy half dollars were struck to satisfy the demand from collectors, sold at a premium through the Mint. In 2021, Kennedy half dollars began again to be produced for general circulation.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: Within hours of the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, Mint Director Eva Adams called Chief Engraver Gilroy Roberts, informing him that serious consideration was already being given to depicting Kennedy on one of the larger silver coins: either the silver dollar, half dollar, or quarter dollar. Adams called Roberts again on November 27 and authorized the project, stating that the late president's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy preferred that he be depicted on the half dollar, replacing the previous design of Benjamin Franklin. Mrs. Kennedy's reasoning was that she did not want to replace George Washington on the quarter.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: In the interest of time (the striking of the new coin was to begin in January 1964), Roberts modified the existing bust of Kennedy he had created for use on the Kennedy medal in the Mint's Presidential series, while Frank Gasparro began modifications to the reverse he had created for the same medal. Both Roberts' and Gasparro's designs had been approved by Kennedy. Roberts had met with Kennedy in person to show him early models of the design; although the President expressed no opinion regarding the depiction, Roberts decided to make some changes after meeting him. After the Mint produced trial strikes, Jacqueline and Robert F. Kennedy were invited to view them. Mrs. Kennedy viewed the designs favorably, but suggested that the hair be altered slightly. It was also suggested that a full or half figure of the president be used instead of the profile, but Roberts noted that there was not enough time to produce an entirely new design because of the project's time constraints, and also that he believed the left profile would give a more attractive appearance.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: Frank Gasparro's reverse design of the Kennedy half dollar was also influenced by the experience he gained from designing the President John. F. Kennedy appreciation medal. In 1962, President Kennedy had three hundred appreciation medals struck by the United States Mint in Philadelphia that were later presented during his June 23, 1963 through July 2, 1963 trip to the nations of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany (West Berlin), Ireland, United Kingdom, Italy, and the Vatican City State. The reverse design of the Kennedy appreciation medal depicts a larger and more detailed Presidential Seal than the one he designed on the Mint's Presidential series (Bureau of the Mint Presidential series stock medal #135 known as the John F. Kennedy Presidential inauguration medal). Gasparro's placement of his initials FG is also similarly located (under the right leg of the eagle) on both the Kennedy appreciation medal and Kennedy half dollar.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: Congressional approval was required for any design change within 25 years of the last. In early December, Representative Henry Gonzalez (Democrat-Texas) introduced a bill for Kennedy to appear on the half dollar. On December 10, the new President, Lyndon Johnson, endorsed the call for a Kennedy half dollar, asking Congress to pass the legislation promptly to allow striking of the new piece to begin early in 1964. President Johnson stated that he had been moved by letters from many members of the public to agree with the plan. The bill to authorize the Kennedy half dollar passed on December 30, 1963. Work was already underway on coinage dies; the use of the already-available designs allowed for the completion of the first dies on January 2, 1964. Only proof coins were initially struck. The first Kennedy half dollars intended for circulation were struck at the Denver Mint on January 30, 1964, followed by the Philadelphia Mint the next week. A ceremonial first strike was held at both Philadelphia and Denver on February 11, 1964.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: The Treasury Department made the coins available to the public beginning on March 24, 1964. A line a block long formed at the department's windows in Washington to purchase the 70,000 coins initially allocated for public sale. Although the department limited sales to 40 per customer, by the end of the day, the coins were gone, but the line had not shortened. Banks in Boston and Philadelphia quickly rationed supplies, but still sold out by noon. Sales in New York did not begin until the following day, and rationing was imposed there as well, to the disgruntlement of the head of the coin department at Gimbels, the largest dealer in the city, which had hoped to sell the coins at a premium.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: The coins were popular overseas as well. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs G. Mennen Williams distributed plastic-encased specimens to presidents and foreign ministers of African nations and to the U.S. ambassadors serving there "to win friends for the United States in Africa". Shortly after the coin's release, the Denver Mint began receiving complaints that the new coin depicted a hammer and sickle on the bottom of Kennedy's truncated bust. In response, Roberts stated that the portion of the design in question was actually his monogram, a stylized "".


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: The Mint struck Kennedy half dollars in large numbers in an attempt to meet the overwhelming demand. The Treasury had initially planned to issue 91 million half dollars for 1964, but raised the number to 141 million. However, a public announcement of the increase failed to cause more coins to actually circulate or to decrease the prices on the secondary market. By late November, the Mint had struck approximately 160 million pieces, yet the coin was almost never seen in circulation. Silver prices were rising, and the majority of the coins were being hoarded. Hopeful that issuing more 1964-dated coins would counter the speculation in them, the Treasury requested and received Congressional authorization to continue striking 1964-dated coins into 1965. Eventually, almost 430 million half dollars dated 1964 were struck, a sum greater than the total struck for circulation in the sixteen years of the Franklin half dollar series.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: These minting operations were rapidly depleting the Treasury's stock of silver. Prices for the metal were rising to such an extent that, by early June, a dime contained 9.33 cents' worth of silver at market prices. On June 3, 1965, President Johnson announced plans to eliminate silver from the dime and quarter in favor of a clad sandwich with layers of copper-nickel on each side of a layer of pure copper. The half dollar was changed from 90% silver to 40%. Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1965 in July. The new half dollars retained their silvery appearance, due to the outer layer being 80% silver and 20% copper. The coin was also minted with an inner layer of 21% silver and 79% copper. The first clad half dollars were struck at the Denver Mint on December 30, 1965. They bore the date 1965; the date would not be changed for US coins until the coin shortage was eased. Beginning on August 1, 1966, the Mint began to strike 1966-dated pieces, and thereafter it resumed the normal practice of striking the current year's date on each piece. Despite the proclaimed end to the coin shortage, Kennedy half dollars circulated little, a scarcity caused by continued hoarding and a dip in production, with the Treasury reluctant to expend more of the nation's silver holdings on a coin which did not circulate. According to coin dealer and numismatic author Q. David Bowers,


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: In May 1969, the Treasury sought authorization to eliminate the half dollar's silver content, changing it to the same copper-nickel clad composition as the dime and quarter. The Treasury also sought approval to strike copper-nickel clad one dollar coins, which would fill a need for gaming tokens in Western casinos. Former president Dwight D. Eisenhower had died recently, and there was discussion of placing Eisenhower's likeness on the new dollar. The Treasury hoped that with the removal of the silver content, the dollar coin would cease to be hoarded and again circulate. Despite the support of President Richard Nixon, some Republicans in the House of Representatives initially scuttled the legislation, disliking the idea of depicting Eisenhower on a base metal coin. The dispute dragged on for over a year before President Nixon signed a bill on December 31, 1970 which authorized production of the Eisenhower dollar and eliminated the remaining 40% silver content from the half dollar. As a result of the delay, in 1970 uncirculated (non-proof) half dollars were struck only at the Denver mint and were available solely in mint sets. With a mintage of 2.1 million, the 1970-D Kennedy half is considered the "key" coin in the series, although enough were produced to keep prices modest. To avoid hoarding and a potential shortage of the sets, the Mint did not announce that no 1970 half dollars would be struck for circulation until after ordering for the mint sets had closed.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: By the time silver was eliminated from the half dollar and the base metal coins were issued in 1971, it had rarely been seen in circulation for so long that some banks had eliminated the slot for the denomination from machines. The Mint had anticipated a dramatic comeback for the denomination, but only a moderate increase in the usage of half dollars was noted after the 1971 clad coins were issued. In July 1971, Mint Director Mary Brooks disclosed that the Treasury was holding 200 million of the new base metal half dollars, as commercial banks expressed little interest in ordering them. "I can't understand the population. They're not using them", Brooks said. Also according to Brooks, most of the over one billion silver Kennedy half dollars had been hoarded by the public. Brooks theorized that because the silver Kennedy half dollar never circulated much and few halves were struck in 1970 in anticipation of the authorization of the new clad coins, the public had become accustomed to not seeing the half dollar in trade. Brooks suggested, "If the country knew there were plenty of them around, they'd probably start hoarding them, too."


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: On March 5, 1973, Brooks announced that the Mint would be soliciting new reverse designs for the half dollar and dollar to commemorate the 1976 United States Bicentennial. On October 18, President Nixon signed Public Law 93-127, which provided for new reverse designs for the quarter, half dollar, and dollar. The designs were to be emblematic of the Bicentennial era. The Mint announced a competition open to all American sculptors. Seth G. Huntington's design depicting Independence Hall was selected for the half dollar. All half dollars struck in 1975 and 1976 bore the double date 1776–1976 on the obverse and Huntington's design on the reverse. Over 521 million Bicentennial half dollars were struck for circulation.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: Following the high mintage of the Bicentennial coins, the number of half dollars struck per year declined. However, in 1979, Mint Director Stella B. Hackel indicated that the Mint would continue to strike them. "We really don't think many half dollars are being used in commerce. They do go somewhere, though, so someone must want them." By then, more than 2.5 billion Kennedy half dollars had been struck since 1964, more than all previously struck US half dollars combined. "The New York Times" numismatic columnist Ed Reiter suggested that hoarding had continued even into the base-metal era, accounting for the shortage of halves in commerce. The silver boom of 1979–80 saw a large increase in the amount of sales and destruction of many hoarded 1964–1969 silver Kennedy half dollars. Record high silver prices caused extensive melting of silver coins, especially half dollars and silver dollars for their metal content.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: Kennedy half dollars continued to be struck through the remainder of the twentieth century, and mintage numbers remained relatively steady in both the Philadelphia and Denver mints until 1987, a year in which no half dollars were struck for circulation; the Treasury had accumulated a two-year supply of the pieces, making further production unnecessary. Demand for half dollars dropped, and casinos (where they were commonly used) increasingly began producing fifty cent chips to use in place of the coins. With mintage numbers remaining low, beginning in 2002, the Kennedy half dollar ceased to be struck for general circulation. Rolls and bags of the current year's pieces could still be purchased from the Mint, at a premium above face value. Kennedy half dollars began to be produced for general circulation again in 2021.


title: Kennedy half dollar

text: In January 2014, a private firm on behalf of the Mint, began surveying customers on possible options for a special issue in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy half dollar. In June, the Mint announced plans to issue seven special 2014 Kennedy halves in commemoration of the series' fiftieth anniversary: two in clad, from Philadelphia and Denver, four in silver from Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, and the West Point Mint, and one in .9999 gold, from West Point. The clad and silver versions bear the normal date; the gold coin has the double date 1964–2014. All have higher relief than the usual issues. The gold coins were released in conjunction with the American Numismatic Association convention in Rosemont, Illinois on August 5, 2014.