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[[2 images]] Mitchell ith Honor In some desolate spot of a foreign land, wasn't until Sept. 1, 1939 - the day the Nazis land with the then might Luftwaffe - that l stupidity was shaken and we awoke one ng to find ward around the corner and we st 20 heavy bombers. None of those was in ne condition. Y, who died in 1936, had a few disciples. We n thanks God for men like Gens. Douglas Mac- r, H.H. "Hap" Arnold, and Carl Spaatz, who y won support for Billy's theories and built air force that slaughtered the Nazis and the Japs. nce upon a time, but no so long ago," said mentator on a recent radio program, "there a man who saw eagles in the sky. And that s name, written eternally among the ever- ng stars, was Billy Mitchell." n the same program was Capt. Eddie Ricken- er, who told of his long association with beginning when he drove Mitchell's staff n France. Maybe you'd be interested in know- hat "Rick" had to say about this great man: Under his driving bluster, he was human and warm. On our whirlwind cross-country drives, rank was forgotten. He would discuss his troubles with me...As a storm center, Mitchel rushed into places where even cyclones feared to howl...When the dirigible Shenandoah crashed in 1925, Mitchell attributed it to incompetency, criminal negligence and almost treasonable administration of the national defense by the War and Navy departments!"...After the court-martial, Billy Mitchell led a more or less retired life on his farm in Virginia. But he continued to fight with a tireless and eloquent pen, and as the years went on, time took up the cudgel for air expansion where Billy Mitchell left off." For the record, members of the court-martial which was convened Oct. 28, 1925, to hear charges against Mitchell were Maj. Gens. Charles P. Summerall, Robert L. Howze, who served as president of the court; Fred W. Sladen, Douglas MacArthur and William S. Graves; Brig. Gens. Benjamin A. Poore, Albert J. Bowley, Edward L. King, Frank R. McCoy, Edwin Winans, George L. Erwin and Ewing E. Booth. Col. Blanton Winship served as the judge advocate general; Col. Sherman Moreland as the trial judge advocate general, and Lt. Col. W.I. McMullen as the assistant trial judge advocate general. Under his rights as defendant, Mitchell challenged three members of the court and they were excused from service: Summerall, Sladen and Bowley. On Nov. 17, Majors Francis B. Wildy and Allen W. Gullion were added to the court staff as assistant judges advocate general. The lone vote for acquittal of Billy Mitchell was cast by General Douglas Mac Arthur. I've been asked a lot of times just what manner of man was Mitchell. Well, I suppose he was some sort of a prophet. He preached and pleaded for a big air force. He stepped on a lot of official toes all over the place to tell his countrymen the truth which he believed they should and had a right to know. He was a fighting man in and out of battle. I remember one time, shortly after the first World War, when Bill had asked me to get busy and develop a plane that would fly higher than any known to man. I had been thinking along these lines myself, and had found a turbo-charger in a junk pile near Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. I mentioned this to Billy, and he asked me why I didn't get some new material. I told him that it required money, which we didn't have. Bill snorted: "Get busy. I'll get you the dough if I have to beat some arm chair brass hat over the hear for it." He got the money. Another time, Billy called me to Washington where some War Department brass was sold on either an English or French type of plane. I had told Billy that the German Fokker could outfly and outfight either of them and that we should develop our own type of plane. Billy agreed, but he needed to prove it. Mitchell, ostensibly showing off the flying prowess of the English and French planes, ordered me to race a Fokker against them. I won easily. Again we had our way. Bill never was a stuffed shirt. He was equally popular with enlisted men and officers. No I may be a skeptic but I keep thinking: "Just what's going to happen if and when they try out the new atom bomb on battleships? I mean, what's going to happen to the findings?" I keep telling myself that this time the nation is going to be the benefactor. This time, the results are going to be studied and not pigeon-holed like they pigeon-holed Billy, and then, even after his death, pigeon-holed three times the move to grant him posthumously the rank of Major General on the Army's records. Almost unbelievable is the fact that there are still some brass hats in Washington who fight even this honor for one of the greatest heroes the nation ever had. All three times the resolution has passed the Senate without dissent - and each time it has been pigeon-holed by the House Military Affairs Committee. I burn up even when I think of the chance that they might treat atomic bomb findings like they treated Billy's results and the moves to grant him the medal which he so richly earned. It won't happen if the press and the people of this country keep their eyes open. We can't afford to have hide-bound brass hats, fearful of their jobs, pigeon-holding atomic findings. They must not be allowed to do that. There's a great advantage now that Billy didn't have in his days. We've still got General MacArthur, who was a member of the military court which tried Bill and alone voted for his acquittal. We've got air-minded Eisenhower, and Spaatz, and Arnold, and Kenney, and other courageous men who saw what air power did in this war. We've got Nagaski and Hiroshima to remind us what the atomic bomb can do. We've also got Cologne, Berlin, and a hundred other cities to show what air power can do even without the atom bomb. If we could dive deep enough we could find a lot of Jap and German battleships that confirmed truths Billy Mitchell established 25 years ago. We just can't be pigeon-holed again! he American Weekly a. deydenfrost 5
