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Billy Mitchell: Prophet of Air Power:
-- "...the advent of air power has completely changed all former systems of national defense... Neither armies or navies can exist unless the air is controlled over them." -- William Mitchell, 1925
While diplomats concentrated on limiting naval arms and engaging in treaty-making exercises as a means to assure world peace during the 1920s, Brigadier General William Mitchell of Milwaukee challenged prevailing views on defense matters. Mitchell, an air power enthusiast, defined orders by publicizing the theory that airplanes had antiquated traditional concepts of military operations.
While Mitchell demonstrated that aircraft armed with bombs could sink battleships, he was overzealous in arguing that military aircraft rendered surface warships as well as land forces obsolete. Mitchell's outspoken views drew a hostile reaction from Army and Navy officials, and the Wisconsin native was court-martialed. But many years later, Congress awarded Mitchell a posthumous Medal of Honor for his ideas. |