Invent the Modern Air Force, Get Court-Martialed…the Story of Billy Mitchell…

…AND OTHER LESSONS REGARDING THE EVOLUTION OF WEAPONRY. As a child in 1964, I went with my father (a B24 copilot) to the Smithsonian. At the Billy Mitchell exhibit, my father (with tears in his eyes) said something like “Every WW II flyboy owes a debt of gratitude to Billy Mitchell. They didn’t listen to him at first, but his ideas won the war”. I never forgot those words, the man behind them, and his historic gifts to the evolution of warfare. In this era of American exceptionalism (and denial), who will be the brave soul who dares challenge Pentagon weaponry (and bloated defense budgets)?

Billy Mitchell (2nd from left) was a hero lauded by the French and British during WW I, and as an aircraft visionary by other Europeans and the American Press. In our military, he was seen mostly as an insubordinate. He foresaw the need for air domination, aircraft carriers, and the vulnerability of Pearl Harbor, all in the early 1920s. The B25 Mitchell Bomber was named in his honor.

Billy Mitchell (1879–1936) was a WW I aircraft hero, who became an Army Colonel, and later an advocate for a powerful Air Force. He attended George Washington University, but dropped to join the Army in 1898. His father had fought in the Civil War (Wisconsin Infantry Regiment). He was assigned to Gen. MacArthur’s command in the Philippines, during the Spanish American War. In 1908, as a young Signal Corps Officer, he witnessed Orville Wright’s flying demonstration at Fort Myer, Virginia. In 1912, he toured battlefields of the Russo-Japanese War, that left him convinced that war with Japan was inevitable. He appeared at 1913 Legislative hearings, opposing the conversion of his Signal Corps into a separate Army Aviation unit. In…