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By John T. Correll The Billy Mitchell Court-Martial By John T. Correll 62 AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2012 In the Army’s view, the issue was The Billy Mitchell insubordination, not the val idity of Court-Martial Mitchell’s claims. y 1925, Billy Mitchell had grade of colonel. It was an important alienated almost everybody job in a significant command, but in the War Department and Mitchell felt he had been demoted and Navy Department, to say sent to the boondocks. The airmen in nothing of President Calvin Texas still called him “General.” BCoolidge. Strident in his advocacy of Two Navy aircraft mishaps soon airpower, Mitchell did not hesitate to caused Mitchell’s temper to boil over lash out when he disagreed with his in even more spectacular fashion than superiors, which was often. “The Gen- usual. The worst of the accidents was eral Staff knows as much about the air the breakup of the Navy dirigible as a hog does about skating,” he said. Shenandoah over Ava, Ohio, Sept. William Mitchell (no middle name) 3. The airship was on a publicity came to fame as the combat leader junket, due to pass over 27 cities at of American air forces in France in times announced in advance to please World War I. He was promoted to the politicians and their constituents. Over temporary grade of brigadier general Ohio, Shenandoah ran into a line squall and kept his star after the war because of intense thunderstorms but did not of his assignment as assistant chief of divert around it, remaining on course the Army Air Service. for a state fair the next day. When Mitchell’s bombers sank Gripped by the storm, the airship the surplus German battleship Ost- pitched up to 6,300 feet, plunged to friesland in a July 1921 demonstration, 3,200 feet, and was thrown back up it was a strong blow for airpower. It to 6,200 feet. The keel broke and the was also a huge embarrassment for airship was torn into three parts. The the Navy, which had said he couldn’t front section fell a mile to the ground, do it. Mitchell’s traditionalist boss, killing the skipper, Lt. Cmdr. Zach- Army Chief Gen. John J. Pershing, ary Lansdowne, and 13 other crew sided with the Navy in dismissing members. Part of the ship was able to the significance of the demonstration. maneuver as a free balloon and landed, Mitchell continued his all-out public saving 27 lives. campaign for airpower. He said the The Shenandoah tragedy followed world stood on the threshold of an the news that a Navy PN-9 seaplane “aeronautical era” and that military on a demonstration flight to Hawaii airpower, independent of ground and had gone down in the Pacific because sea forces, should be the first line of of engine failure. Another aircraft on defense. the flight was forced to land in the He was popular with the public and water 200 miles short of Hawaii when the press and had some supporters in it ran out of fuel. Congress. He had a strong following among younger officers, and even a Rocket From San Antonio few moles in the Navy. The generals What enraged Mitchell as much as and admirals wanted to be rid of him. anything was the public reaction of Thus when his term as assistant air Secretary of the Navy Curtis D. Wilbur, chief expired in March 1925, he was who said the accidents illustrated limi- not reappointed. He was assigned to tations of airpower. “Some people,” Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio as said Wilbur, “make extravagant claims aviation officer for the Army’s Eighth for aviation. Great things have been Corps Area, reverting to his permanent achieved. From our experience, how- Billy Mitchell (standing) and his wife (to his left, seated) react during a tense mo- ment during the six-week-long trial. AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2012 63 the public mind for the purpose of forcing government action through the pressure of public opinion is an exceedingly dangerous undertaking and precedent,” Coolidge said. “It is for the civil authority to determine what Photo via Library of Congress appropriations shall be granted, what appointments shall be made, and what rules shall be adopted for the conduct of its armed forces. ... Whenever the military power starts dictating to the civil authority by whatever means adopted, the liberties of the country are beginning to end.” Mitchell was charged under the 96th Article of War, the catch-all general article that covered “disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline [and] all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the military service.” Mitchell ridiculed Article 96, saying, “Officers are tried under it for kicking a horse.” The Army held Mitchell’s statements Mitchell (standing left) listens as the charges against him are read. The prosecution opened and closed its case in one day, but it wouldn’t be a short trial after all. were prejudicial to good order and discipline, insubordinate, “contemptu- ous and disrespectful,” and intended ever, I am convinced that the Atlantic does not like the statement I made, let to discredit the War Department and and the Pacific are still the greatest them take disciplinary action as they Navy Department. With the Sept. 5 bulwarks against any air invasion of see fit, according to their judgment, and 9 statements counted separately, the United States.” Wilbur said the court-martial or no court-martial. ... it added up to eight specifications to PN-9 incident showed how difficult The investigation that is needed is the charge. it was to cross 2,100 miles of ocean of the War and Navy Departments Coolidge, hoping to tamp down the without carrying bombs, much less to and their conduct in the disgraceful controversy and divert attention from cross with 1,000-pound bombs. administration of aviation.” the Mitchell court-martial, appointed In San Antonio Sept. 5, Mitchell Summoned to Washington to explain a board, headed by New York banker called in the press and gave them a himself, Mitchell was greeted at the Dwight W. Morrow, to look into the 5,000-word statement. “These ac- train station by cheering supporters military aviation issue. cidents are the direct result of the and an American Legion fife and incompetency, criminal negligence, drum corps. Curtain Up and almost treasonable administration The court-martial began Oct. 28 in of the national defense by the Navy Orders From Coolidge the Emery Building, an old red brick and War Departments,” he said. President Coolidge was Mitchell’s warehouse, at the foot of Capitol Hill “All aviation policies, schemes, and direct opposite in personality. A dour in downtown Washington. Five hun- systems are dictated by nonflying of- man of few words, he was satisfied to dred people, including 40 reporters ficers of the Army or Navy who know be known as “Silent Cal.” He made his and newsreel cameramen, lined the practically nothing about it,” he said. national reputation by putting down a streets to see Colonel Mitchell and “The lives of the airmen are being police strike in Boston in 1919 when Mrs. Mitchell arrive. used merely as pawns in their hands. he was governor of Massachusetts. Twelve senior generals, handpicked ... Officers and agents sent by the War The War Department inspector gen- by the Army and the War Department, and Navy Departments to Congress eral recommended that Mitchell be were appointed to the court. One of have almost always given incomplete, tried by court-martial. The charges them, destined for greater things, misleading, or false information about were not made by Mitchell’s military was Mitchell’s boyhood friend from aeronautics.” superior but rather by the Secretary of Milwaukee, Douglas MacArthur. In Mitchell said Shenandoah, over- War at the direction of the President. addition, there was a “law member” weight in its structure and with low Coolidge did not accuse Mitchell of the court, Col. Blanton C. Winship, reserve buoyancy, had been sent on a directly in public. That might have a legal officer assigned to assist and propaganda mission without adequate been seen as prejudicing the outcome rule on legal questions. safeguards. He then moved on to of the trial. However, there was no Mitchell promptly challenged three general criticism of Army and Navy doubt who Coolidge was talking about of the generals off the court, including aviation programs. when he spoke to the American Legion Maj. Gen. Charles P. Summerall, a He wasn’t finished. convention in early October. future Army Chief of Staff who was to Four days later, he called the report- “Any organization of men in the have been president of the court. The ers back and said, “If the department military service bent on inflaming ousted generals were not replaced, as 64 AIR FORCE Magazine / August 2012 only six members were required for a doah commander. She testified the ecutors in the Army. The attack on trial. Maj. Gen. Robert L. Howze took Navy tried to influence her statement Mitchell and the defense witnesses over as president. to the board of inquiry, wanting her sharpened as Gullion took on a big Mitchell’s defense team was led by to say that her husband had been share of the questioning. Rep. Frank R. Reid (R-Ill.), a first rate willing and ready to make the flight. The trial reached its dramatic peak lawyer who met Mitchell at House She told the inquiry and the Mitchell in late November when Gullion cross- Aircraft Committee hearings. He called court that her husband had regarded examined Mitchell.
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