Mitchell, Billy

Mitchell, Billy (1879–1936) army air service officer, born William Lendrum Mitchell in Nice, France. Mitchell was one of the outstanding combat air officers of World War I, commanding the largest concentration of allied air power of the war at St. Mihiel (1918). In recognition of his wartime service, he received the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal, as well as various foreign honors. Appointed assistant chief of the Army Air Service after the war, a position which he held until 1925, Mitchell began speaking out about the eventual prominence of air power, arousing the ire of the army and navy hierarchy, which itself became a target of his increasingly open and vitriolic criticism. After he was court-martialed, found guilty of insubordination, and demoted from general to colonel, Mitchell resigned from the service (1926). He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in recognition of his work toward the establishment of a separate air force (1946).