General Billy Mitchell--American visionary

Gen. Mitchell painting,
Mitchell Gallery of Flight

The Marathon Pundit family saved a bucket full of money by flying out of Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport instead of Chicago's O'Hare to Washington two weeks ago so I could attend CPAC.

But who was General Mitchell? Billy Mitchell was a Milwaukee-area native who was a decorated World War I hero. He was an aviation warfare theorist even before the Great War. He's considered the father of the U.S. Air Force, although that service branch wasn't founded until 1947. It was Mitchell who proved that an aerial attack could sink battleships--in 1921. Mitchell also envisioned the then-radical idea that air power instead of Navy vessels should be America's primary homeland defense. He warned--in the 1920s--that Japan was planning to attack America. His penchant for irritating military brass led to a court-martial trial, at the order of President Calvin Coolidge, for violating the 96th Article of War--which was probably the biggest mistake made by "Silent Cal."

From Time in 1925:

Notice of eight charges was served on Colonel [He was demoted in 1925] Mitchell last week, accusing him of "conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline," making "a statement insubordinate to the administration of the War Department," making a "statement highly contemptuous and disrespectful" to the War Department and to the Navy Department "with intent to discredit the same."

Mitchell was found guilty of all charges. None of his jurors, which included Douglas MacArthur, were fliers. He was suspended from the Army for five years without pay. Coolidge restored half of Mitchell's pay, which he refused to collect--Mitchell resigned from the Army instead. By the 1930s, his reputation was largely rehabilitated. But Mitchell's struggles wore him down--the visionary died at the age of 56 in 1936.

Inside his namesake airport is the Mitchell Gallery of Flight, which includes several Mitchell exhibits, a few on early Wisconsin aviation, and a display dedicated to Apollo 8 and 13 astronaut and Milwaukeean James Lovell.