Billy Mitchell

As early as 1920, US Army General Billy Mitchell began to lobby naval brass about America’s woefully unprepared defensive air power, but his talk of dogfights over the Pacific from aircraft carriers was laughed at. In addition, Mitchell's vision of a US ‘Air Arm’ would have meant massive, costly upgrades to the nation’s dated flying machines owned by private firms holding patents on aircraft machinery. Old guard soldiers, like John J. Pershing, dismissed as delusional ravings Mitchell’s belief that a battleship could be destroyed by a bomber. Mitchell’s outspoken press conferences about an airplane trust supported by corrupt government officials led to his court-martial for insubordination in 1925. He died in 1936, a man ahead of his times.