Billy Mitchell

Cast

Born

December 29, 1879 · Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Died

February 19, 1936

Birth name

William Lendrum Mitchell

U.S. Army officer who foresaw -- and unwisely trumpeted -- the need for air power to win land wars. (Unwise, because his candor cost him his career.) He advocated a separate air force, thus incurring the wrath of U.S. army and navy brass. When the navy airship "Shenandoah" went down in 1925, Mitchell accused the government of "incompetency, criminal negligence and almost treasonable administration of the national defense." On account of that statement he was court-martialed for insubordination, and he eventually resigned from the army. The story is wonderfully captured, with Gary Cooper in the role of the general, in The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955).