William "Billy" Mitchell, Father of the U.S. Air Force

Captain William "Billy" Mitchell in uniform in 1918.

Early Life

It is interesting how our lives evolve, and we are always surprised when we look back through our history and how it changed everything.

Take for example when a couple take a vacation to Nice, France from Wisconsin and the wife delivers a young man on December 29th, 1879!

This is what happend to Senator Mitchell from Wisconsin and his wife.

Senator Mitchell was a Civil War veteran, and the desire to serve was instilled in "Billy" at a very young age.

William "Billy" Mitchell grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and attended Racine College and Columbian University in Washington, D.C.

Before graduation "Billy" enlisted in teh 1st Wisconsin Infantry in 1899 as a private to fight in the Spanish American War.

As the son of a U.S. Senator William "Billy" Mitchell quickly received a commission as an officer, but the war ended before he was ready to fight.

His first duty was in the U.S. Army Signal Corps and servied in Cuba and the Phillippines during the Phillippine insurrection.

In 1901 he was sent to Alaska stringing telegraph lines through the wilderness. Operating with a small group in extremely harsh geographic and climatic conditions was to his liking.

He learned independence, initiative, creativity, and leadership. These traits would make him a remarkable officer.

It was those same traits that would eventually get him in trouble.

While in Alaska Mitchell studied Otto Lilienthal's glider experiments. He cam to the conclusion that wars would soon be fought in the air, as well as on and below the sea.

As a young U.S. Signal Corps officer, Mitchell was invited to observe Orville Wright's flying demonstration

Mitchell Learns To Fly

Mitchell then attended the Army Staff College and soon became the only Signal Corps officer on the Army General Staff in 1913.

Because aviation was placed under the Signal Corps, Mitchell became well acquantied with early adopters of flying and early military aviation pilots.

While Mitchell was the deputy commander of the aviation section in 1916, he decided he should take private flying lessons and learn how to fly.

Mitchell enrolled at the Curtiss Flying School in Newport News, Virginia at the age of 38 and learned how to fly.

War appeared on the horizon in Europe, and Mitchell wen to France to study the production of military aircraft and how they might be useful in a war setting.

Soon after Mitchell arrived back in the states the United States declared war on Germnay in 1917.

World War I

Mitchell had met many of the Allied air commanders, but one in particular, Sir Hugh Trenchard/span> of the Royal Air Force, advocated using air power as an offensive weapon. This led Mitchell to learn more about aerial warefare and how it might help the army.


Sir Hugh Trenchard, Royal Air Force Commander in World War I

Mitchell by now had been promoted to Brigadier General and was placed in command of all U.S. aerial combat units in France. Mitchell employed all of Trenchard;s ideas into practice during the battle of St. Mihiel in Septemger of 1918.

Mitchell then commanded all 1,481 U.S. and Allied airplanes, acheiving complete aerial superiority of the skie and devastating the German ground forces.

Mitchell was awarded many U.S. and foreign medals for his service, but his rude and overbearing methods annoyed the chain of command alienating his superiors.

Mitchell's Post War Service

Mitchell believed he would be chosen to lead the Army Air Service, but instead became the deputy chief under Maj. General Menoher.

Mitchell advocated a separate independent air force, and promoted border patrols, forest fire patrols, aerial mapping as well as other activity that showed the value of aviation.

Mitchell, however, became increasingly vocal while publicly attacking his superiors in the Army, Navy, and even the White House!

Sinking A Battleship

During the years 1921-1931 his agitation brought about the famous airplane versus battleship tests.

When his Martin MB-2 bombers managed to sink a captured German battleship, the Ostfiesland.

Aewrial view of the sinking of the captured German battleshipo Ostfriesland on July 21, 1921.

Mitchell then was sent on a tour of the Pacific and Far East, after which he made his famours prediction that the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor on a Sunday morning.

Mitchell returned to the U.S. in early 1925 at which point he was reverted to his permanent rank of colonel.

Mitchell was assigned to a post in San Antonio, Texas but he refused to remain silent.

After the disaster of the crash of the dirigible USS Shenandoah during a violent storm, Mitchell accused the Army and Navy leadership of incompetence.

Colonel William Mitchell is court martialed

On October 28, 1925 the court martial of Colonel William (“Billy”) Mitchell, Air Service, United States Army, began at Washington, D.C. For his criticism of the U.S. Navy’s leadership in regard to a number of deadly aviation accidents.

Mitchell was charged with eight counts of insubordination.


Colonel William Mitchell during the 1925 court martial.

His outspoken advocacy resulted in the famous Court Martial of Billy Mitchell, in which a military court consisting of twelve senior Army officers found Mitchell guilty of insubordination.

He was reduced in rank and suspended for five years without pay.

Instead, Mitchell resigned from the Army and continued to advocate for air power.

As a private citizen he continued campaigning for a separate Air Force service, but on February 19, 1936 he died from heart problems combined with the flu.

After his death, President Franklin D. Roosevelt elevated Billy Mitchell to the rank of Major General on the retired officers list.

The North American Aviation B-25 twin-engine medium bomber was named “Mitchell” in recognition of General Mitchell’s efforts to build up the military air capabilities of the United States.

He died in 1936.