Page 10 - Aerotech News and Review, Dec. 6, 2019

100-year-old veteran pioneered on U-2 project

to the Antelope Valley in 1957. He the hospital for 31 of those 35 years.
had been working with pioneering On Nov. 25, AV Hospital CEO
aviation genius Bill Lear (of Lear- Ed Mirzabegian, joined by elected
jet fame); with the CIA on a project Hospital Director Kristina Hong,
called “Ox Cart;” and another plane presented Arnold with a certificate
with superior optics, the U-2 spy celebrating his public service and
plane. 100th birthday.
The U-2, an overhead reconnais- “My highest rank was master ser-
sance platform with optics so ad- geant,” he said. “It just means a little
vanced they could spot missiles in bit higher pay.”
siloes tens of thousands of feet be- He spent 8 1/2 months on Okina-
low, was invaluable to national se- wa, working on B-29 Super Fortress
curity. The plane, which flew over bombers, which were used to bomb
the Soviet Union with impunity for North Korea during the Korean War.
years, enabled President Dwight D. “We were lucky,” he said. “We
Eisenhower to know with confidence flew missions every day, without es-
what the Russians were capable of in corts. We never lost one.”
strategic terms. He married his sweetheart, Edna,
That ended in April 1960 when Courtesy photograph in 1942, and they were together for
CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers was Master Sgt. Lou Arnold 67 years, until she died.
shot down in Soviet air space. Pow- Along the way, they had two
ers flew from a secret base in Tur- children, one boy and one girl, four
key. Initially described as a NASA Arnold had worked in classified lo- grandchildren, and eight great-grand-
weather plane that flew off course, cations around the world, including children.
the cover story disintegrated and Cyprus, England, Turkey, Thailand So, for their family, this year, is a
embarrassed Eisenhower when Soviet and, of course, “what they call Area look back at 100 years of Lou Arnold,
leader Nikita Khrushchev produced 51 we called ‘The Ranch.’” with many of those years invested in
the wreckage, and the pilot, Powers. Arnold arrived at “The Ranch” some of the key developments in
Photograph by Dennis Anderson Powers was tried, and held in Soviet soon after Lockheed’s designer of aerospace that helped keep the Unit-
AV Hospital volunteer and World War II veteran Lou Arnold. captivity until 1962, and returned in the U-2, Kelly Johnson, identified ed States safe, and the world out of
a spy swap. the remote Nevada dry lake and for- another world war that would have
by Dennis Anderson a secret. But, having reached the age “We delivered the aircraft that mer artillery range as the ideal place used nuclear weapons if not for the
special to Aerotech News of 100, he also has a few stories Powers flew,” Arnold said. in the Cold War 1950s to keep secret U-2 and its ability to spy from high
worth telling. Historical speculation endured for things the government wanted to re- in the sky.
LANCASTER, Calif.—Getting Arnold’s journey to the age of 100 main secret.
Editor’s note: Dennis Anderson
to the century mark is interesting has had its ups and downs, but mostly decades on how the Soviet anti-air- “I never talked about it with my served as an Army paratrooper dur-
craft crew and missile volley finally
enough by itself, but Lou Arnold also up. He has had nothing if not a high- managed to destroy a U-2. Arnold wife,” he said. “I never told anything ing the Cold War. During a long ca-
took part in a couple of aviation’s flying career. And he is too modest to about where I was, or what we had
most historic developments of World put much into words about work on believes he has the most precise so- been doing.” He added, “We usually reer with United Press International
and the Associated Press, he covered
lution. The U-2 was in some ways a
War II and the Cold War. projects that saved civilization from were only gone for about 30 days at
Arnold worked on support teams tyranny, or helped to prevent World delicate aircraft because of the super- a time.” His granddaughter Michelle the military, the space shuttle pro-
and air crew in the U-2 spy-plane War III. wide wingspan that lifted it to great, rolled her eyes and smiled, “Only 30 gram, and advances in aerospace.
Three of his ”technothriller” genre
classified altitude. The Soviet mis-
program that helped win the Cold “Mostly, I just worked with very days!”
War, and the Norden bombsight interesting people,” he said. “People siles detonated near enough to the Later he worked at Lockheed on novels about military aviation were
development team that helped win aircraft without hitting it “to push it published and treated on spy planes
World War II. who were easy to be with.” through the sound barrier where the the SR-71 Blackbird. He retired at and technology advances in aviation
His friends on the volunteer team Arnold, and his wife, Edna, moved aircraft came apart.” age 65, and has been volunteering at during World War II.
at Antelope Valley Hospital just think
he’s a great guy who continues to
show up after 31 years.
If life is 90 percent about show-
ing up, Lou has been showing up for
most of his 100 years.
Arnold, who recently celebrated
his 100th birthday, enlisted in the
Army Air Corps In 1939, two years
before the United States was plunged
into World War II following Japan’s
sneak attack at Pearl Harbor.
The Army Air Corps was building
up quickly in the late 1930s, with
the emergence of new technologies
and all-metal, multi-engine bombers,
like the B-17 Flying Fortress, a plane
bristling with machine guns to defend
itself. Courtesy photograph
Additionally, the B-17, and its A U-2 Dragon Lady aircraft, similar to the one piloted by Gary Powers, on display in
counterpart, the B-24 Liberator, the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
would have an additional weapon.
It wasn’t a gun, or a bomb. It was a Right: Part of the U-2
piece of optics classified Top Secret; wreckage on display at Central
the Norden bombsight. Armed Forces Museum in
Moscow
The Army Air Corps “had me
working on the Norden,” Arnold
said in an interview, surrounded by
family. Courtesy photograph
The Norden sight essentially op- Francis Gary Powers, a CIA pilot, was shot down flying over
erated as a computer that calculated the Soviet Union in April 1960. Powers flew from a secret
wind drift on bombs to target. That, base in Turkey. Powers was tried, and held in Soviet captivity
and its superior optics, made it one until 1962, when he was returned to the United States in a
of the closely guarded secrets of the spy swap.
war.
Clearly, Arnold knows how to keep Courtesy photograph
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