Mitchell’s attacks became more vitriolic and were embarrassing to his superiors as well as to Capitol Hill and the White House. Photo – Jamie Dudiak . On September 1, 1925, a naval seaplane was lost on a nonstop flight from San Francisco to Hawaii. Billy Mitchell Airport in Hatteras. Introduction. Dana Athnos show off prototypes of the Billy Mitchell heritage coat in the Pentagon on Monday, May 15, 2006. After returning from the latter trip in 1924, he wrote a shocking 323-page report–probably the most prophetic document of his career–that stressed that, when making estimates of Japanese air power, ‘care must be taken that it is not underestimated.’. Has taken part in the Naval Sea Cadet Corps (NSCC) and has been awarded the Quartermaster Award (Certificate). Entering the service, Mitchell's father soon used his connections to obtain his son a commission. The name Billy Mitchell brings different images to mind. In addition, the circumstances of the exercises were not "wartime conditions" as all of the target vessels were stationary and effectively defenseless. In 1925, he made remarks that led to his court-martial and resignation from the service. The son of a wealthy United States senator from Wisconsin, Mitchell was born in Nice, France, on Dec. 29, 1879, while his parents were on vacation. Reaction in Washington was immediate. It galled him that the French had to provide air protection over the American lines, resulting in what Mitchell viewed as a lack of control and effectiveness. With each success, Mitchell became more determined that the nation’s money should be spent on aircraft and not expensive battleships. He made his last public appearance on February 11, 1935, when he addressed the House Military Affairs Committee. On October 28, 1925, a young legal aide reported to a ramshackle warehouse at the foot of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. They were backed by the Army airmen who had served in France, a group of which Billy Mitchell was the senior member. William ‘Billy’ Mitchell: Air Power Visionary. In World War I, Mitchell largely supported air power’s role as an enabler of ground operations via reconnaissance, close air support, etc. On July 20-21, they attacked the German battleship Ostfriesland. William Lendrum “Billy” Mitchell was born on December 29, 1879, in Nice, France. Gen. Billy Mitchell, the top American air commander of that war, devised a plan for dropping a divi- sion of American infantrymen behind German lines. His name remains synonymous with military aviation during the 1920s. Educated in Milwaukee, he later enrolled at Columbian College (present-day George Washington University) in Washington, DC. He proposed a number of daring innovations for the Air Service that stunned the nonflying Army generals–a special corps of mechanics, troop-carrying aircraft, a civilian pilot pool for wartime availability, long-range bombers capable of flying the Atlantic and armor-piercing bombs. None of them was a flier. Weakened by his struggle, the old campaigner died in a New York hospital on February 19, 1936, at the age of 56. However, he returned with a scathing report on the inadequate defenses he saw there. President Calvin Coolidge approved the sentence handed down by the court, but altered the court’s verdict by granting him full subsistence and half pay because Mitchell would not be able to accept private employment while still in uniform. He was appalled at how quickly the organization he had helped to build in war had disintegrated in peacetime. He had elected to be buried in Milwaukee, his hometown, where he enlisted in 1898, rather than at Arlington National Cemetery. Mitchell continued his all-out public c… Two days later, the U.S. Navy dirigible Shenandoah was destroyed while on a goodwill flight. Just a year and a half later, Billy Mitchell, now a Brigadier General, was given command of all American air units in General Pershing’s American Expeditionary Force, and orchestrated the air campaign of the Battle of St. Mihiel, coordinating nearly 1,500 Allied aircraft.