The Arnold Line, which ran from Bolling Field to British airfields, delivered more than 1,350 aircraft to a Europe ablaze with war prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Named after Gen. Henry Arnold, now chief of the Army Air Forces and chief planner of the ferrying program, volunteer pilots flew six round trips every month to Britain and back until mid-October, when the North Atlantic winter forced a hiatus in the ferrying service. Supply lines running from other American bases to Russian airfields were also directed from Bolling Field. At one point, 18 percent of all aircraft in the World War II Soviet air force inventory came from the United States. A secondary mission of the Air Corps Ferrying Command was the overseas transport of military and diplomatic officials, as well as diplomatic mail with the speed demanded by the course of events.

The Arnold Line was the result of the Lend-Lease Act, created March 11, 1941, that gave American policymakers the option to provide Allied powers with war material without committing American troops to combat. The act allowed the president to “sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of, to any such government (whose defense the president deems vital to the defense of the United States) any defense article.“ The value of these items couldn't exceed $1.3 billion.

In a speech to a group of reporters, President Roosevelt compared the controversial plan to one neighbor lending a garden hose to another neighbor to put out a fire in his home.

“What do I do in such a crisis?“ President Roosevelt asked. “I don't say, 'Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it.' I don't want $15. I want my garden hose back after the fire is over.“

The Airmen who flew aircraft and mail to Britain had the most perilous mission – even more dangerous than the Atlantic waters infested with enemy submarines. Aircraft could be flash-frozen with ice building up as fast as one inch in 60 seconds until the aircraft was too heavy to fly. Deceptive radio transmissions from Axis vessels attempted to lure Lend-Lease airplanes onto occupied landing strips. Some airplanes had problems develop in midflight, never to be seen again. Several hundred American volunteers died while serving on the Arnold Line throughout the course of World War II.

This policy not only generated good will between the United States and Britain, but it was a critical factor in the Allies' success over the remainder of World War II, because it kept American military personnel focused on the training, development and use of military equipment when the nation had declared its neutrality. Through Lend-Lease, equipment and the supply lines to support it were in place when the America military reached full strength overseas in 1943. While the bomb bays of Haynes' B-24 were empty, the aircraft brought hope. The tide of war in Europe was going to change.