BILLY MITCHELL COURT MARTIAL
On October 28, 1925, Brigadier General William Mitchell underwent a court martial on
charges of insubordination and conduct "to the prejudice of good order and military
discipline." Mitchell was the foremost advocate of aerial warfare in America.
Mitchell zealously believed airplanes would provide wartime superiority in future
battles. Mitchell predicted that air battles would be the first battles of any
future was and became a staunch critic of the military's reluctance to develop an Air
Service. To prove his point, Mitchell staged a demonstration of the destructiveness of
air power, using airplanes armed with bombs. He destroyed and sank an old German battle
ship, a submarine, a destroyer, a cruiser, and an old American battleship. Despite
Mitchell's compelling and emphatic display, the military balked. Undaunted, Mitchell
spoke throughout the country predicting the future air power of countries such as
German, Japan, and Italy. The Navy attempted to counter Mitchell's messages by
displaying its own aerial advances, but its attempts failed. Commenting on the
failures, Mitchell stated that in his opinion, "those accidents are the result of
incompetence, the criminal negligence, and the almost reasonable administration of our
national defense by the Navy and War Departments." In Mitchell's subsequent court
martial, the defense claimed that his actions were intended to safeguard the aerial
defenses of the United States and that he had exhausted every other means possible, but
to no avail. Mitchell himself testified that by putting up the weakest possible defense
for the country, the military was committing criminal treason.
Mitchell was found guilty and sentenced to suspension of rank, command and forfeiture
of all pay for five years. On appeal, Mitchell was restored to half of his allowances
and pay by President Calvin Coolidge, but the president upheld the suspensions.
Mitchell retired to a farm in Virginia and died in 1936. In 1941, just as Mitchell had
prophesied, the Japanese, using an aerial bombardment, destroyed the U.S. Naval base in
Pearl Harbor.
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