biography
| name: |
Mitchell, Billy
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popular name of William Mitchell
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1879–1936)
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| biography:
| Aviation pioneer, born in Nice, France. The son of a US senator, he grew up in Milwaukee, enlisted for service in the Spanish-American War and received a Signal Corps commission (1901). Assigned to the aviation section (1916), he learned to fly the following year and immediately became a forceful and outspoken advocate of military air power. In France (Sep 1918) he commanded the largest concentration of aircraft (some 1500 warplanes) in aviation's brief history. In 1921 and 1923 he energetically arranged for aircraft to demonstrate the potential of the new arm by sinking obsolete warships at sea, but unconvinced, the authorities continued to grade air power low on the priority list. He provoked a court-martial by his continuing and insistent criticism of his superiors, whom he accused of negligence and even treason. Convicted of insubordination, he resigned from the army (Feb 1926). As a civilian, he continued to promote his vision of air power's importance in warfare. World War 2 brought him full posthumous vindication. |
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