Tell us something about Billy Mitchell. What was the general like?
A. He was a complex character: independent-minded, aggressive, brash and often contemptuous of his superiors. He was fearless as a pilot, charismatic as a combat commander, brilliant and innovative as a strategist. He came from one of the richest families in the Midwest. His grandfather, when he died, was worth over $300 million in today’s dollars, and his father had been a U.S. Senator. He joined the Army when he was eighteen and immediately became the service’s youngest officer. In World War I he led the largest armada of airplanes ever assembled to attack the Germans and returned to the U.S. as a young general with a chest full of medals. He was a short compact man, who spoke with a twangy voice, who liked to sport the latest fashions in civilian clothes, who didn’t smoke and didn’t eat red meat. In the 1950s Gary Cooper played him in a movie and the Mitchell family thought the actor was totally miscast for the role. They thought it should have been Jimmy Cagney.
