Billy Mitchell is also considered the father of the Air Force.  Without Billy Mitchell the Air Force might have been started later than September 18, 1947.  It also might not have been where it was during World War II.  Although Bill Mitchell didn’t get to see the effects of air power in World War II, he did get to see the effects in it in World War I.

Billy Mitchell was born on December 28^th, 1879 in Nice, France (Wikipedia).  He soon moved to America where he lived in Milwaukee.  When Mitchell was eighteen he enlisted in the United States Army as a Private.  He was soon sent to fight in the Spanish-American War.  During his enlistment he was sent on tours of duty in the Philippines and Alaska territory, but this was before the First World War.

When the First World War broke out in 1914, the United States stayed out of it.  It wasn’t until 1917 that the United States entered the war.  The year before the United States entered the war, Mitchell took private flying lessons because the Army would not allow someone as old and high ranking as him to fly a plane.  In 1917 when the United States entered the war, Mitchell was sent to France where he became a Lieutenant Colonel.  Soon he received the rank of Brigadier General (General rankings go from lowest to highest: Brigadier General (one star), Major General (two stars), Lieutenant General (three stars), General (four stars), and only in a time of war a General of the Army (five stars) can be allowed only if the other Generals of the other countries are the same rank.) and commanded all of the United States air combat in France.

In the closing weeks of the war, Mitchell led an astonishing 1,500 British, French, and Italian aircraft in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel.  The Battle of Saint-Mihiel was one of the first coordinated air-ground attacks in recorded history (Platt).  This battle probably made Mitchell think that air power is going to be essential if you plan on winning the battle or even a war.  At the war’s end Mitchell was probably one of the best known Americans in Europe alongside Eddie Rickenbacker (Rickenbacker was the ace of World War One for America with twenty-six confirmed kills, while the ace of the war was Manfred von Richthofen a.k.a. the “Red Baron” with at least eighty confirmed kills).

When Mitchell came back to America he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (this is the second highest military decoration in the United States only beaten by the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross is awarded for “extreme gallantry and risk of life in actual combat with an armed enemy force”(Wiki)), the Distinguished Service Medal (awarded for distinguishing yourself with “exceptionally meritorious service to the government in a duty of great responsibility”(Wiki)), and several other foreign decorations he earned during the eighteen months he spent in France (Wiki).  The next year (1919) he was appointed the Deputy Director of the Air Service.  He kept his Brigadier General ranking.  Having seen how effective air power is, Mitchell wanted development and research of bombsights, aircraft that could land on water, and ‘aerial torpedoes’ (missiles).  Mitchell also wanted aircraft to be used to fight forest fires and he wanted to hold a transcontinental air race.  He encouraged Army pilots to try and go faster, higher, and longer than ever.  Mitchell just wanted to do anything to keep air power and aviation in the news.

Mitchell boasted that anti-shipping aircraft could defend a coastline better than coastal guns and naval vessels such as battleships and submarines.  He also claimed that one thousand, that’s right 1000, bombers could be built for the price of one battleship.  And could then sink that battleship.  This pricing, of course, is back in the 1920’s.  Mitchell boasted that to the United States Navy that he could sink any battleship under “was condition”.  The Navy, however, wanted to study this and put forth strict guidelines so that they could study the effects of small munitions against the battleship.  Mitchell began to train 1000 men in 125 aircraft in Langley, Virginia.  Alexander Seversky, a Russian pilot during World War One, told Mitchell to aim the bombs near the ships so the rapidly expanding water would change the pressure and damage the hull plates and cause the ship to sink (Wiki).

In 1921 the Navy brought out the big guns, a German World War I battleship Ostriesland that was considered ‘unsinkable’ (of course we all know that other ships donned ‘unsinkable’ still sunk).  Mitchell anticipated this so he had some 2000 pound and 4100 pound bombs made.  He bombed the German battleship and it sunk in 21 minutes.  This test made the United States Navy consider the thought of airpower.

With all this testing going on Mitchell had a lot of publicity, so in 1924 Mitchells’ superiors sent him to Hawaii and later to Asia, all this just to keep him out of the news.  While Mitchell was in Asia he wrote a 324 page report saying that Japan would attack the United States using airpower.  More specifically he said that they would attack Pearl Harbor.  This, as we all know, happened on December 7^th, 1941.

In 1925 Mitchell wrote a book called Winged Defense which told about the benefits of having good, effective air power.  Unfortunately, it was only read inside the air power community.  Very shortly after that in March, Mitchell was demoted to the rank of Colonel and was sent down to San Antonio, Texas.  There he became an Air Officer to a Ground Corps.  Later that year he was court marshaled.  A court martial is the military’s version of court.  If a crime is severe enough then it is held in both court systems.  While being court marshaled he was found guilty of insubordination.  Insubordination is the act of a subordinate deliberately disobeying a rule.  Mitchell was supposed to be suspended for five years with no pay, but instead he resigned on February 1^st, 1926 (Waller).

Mitchell continued to try and promote air power.  When Franklin Roosevelt was elected President of the United States of America, Mitchell thought that since Roosevelt used to be in the Navy he would be able to persuade him to help promote air power.  Unfortunately it didn’t work and on February 19^th, 1936, after fighting a horrific case of influenza, William Lendrum “Billy” Mitchell died.  Six years later in 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt promoted Mitchell to Major General.  Also in 2004, Congress voted to have Mitchell promoted to Major General and in 2005 the President did.  Also, posthumously, Mitchell was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, which is the highest civilian awarded which is bestowed by Congress.  It is awarded for performing an outstanding deed for the safety, prosperity, and national interest of the United States of America.

Billy Mitchell is a legend, a hero, or even a god in air power, aviation and the Air Force.  He has a B-25 Bomber named after him (this is the only American aircraft to be named after a specific person) (Wiki).  He has airports, bridges, awards, and a dining hall in the Air Force Academy named after him.  He has movies about him and books about him getting court marshaled.  A protégé of Billy Mitchell was Henry “Hap” Arnold, who was also very influential person in the forming of the United States Air Force.  Hap Arnold said after Mitchells’ death that “People would often say Billy Mitchell was years ahead of his time but many forgot how it is also true,” (Wiki).  Without Billy Mitchell air power and even the Air Force would be very different.