(3 of 4)
because he declared that any battleship afloat
could be sunk by bombing planes in a few minutes—a statement he was
partially able to prove in tests off the Virginia Capes. By March 1925,
he had made himself such a pestiferous gadfly about Washington on the
subject of a united air force that another man was given his air corps
job and he was reduced to a colonelcy and shipped off to Fort Sam
Houston in Texas. The Shenandoah was torn apart in a storm. Three
seaplanes started for Hawaii; two never got out of sight of land while
one was forced down in mid-Pacific. Colonel Mitchell said the
Shenandoah was 50% overweight, that its framework had been weakened
months before the disaster when it wrenched loose from its mooring
mast. He said the Hawaii flight was a botched publicity stunt.
"These accidents," he summed up, "are the direct result
of the incompetency, criminal negligence and almost treasonable
administration of the national defense hy the Navy and War Departments.
The lives of the airmen are being used merely as pawns in their
hands." Later that year Colonel Mitchell was court-martialed for
his free & easy talk against his superiors. After a trial that
turned into a circus he was found ''guilty of conduct to the prejudice
of good order and military discipline" and sentenced to be
"suspended from rank, command and duty with forfeiture of all pay
and allowances.'' All his friends and some of his enemies thought he
had been "railroaded" for speaking his mind on national
defense. President Coolidge later restored half his colonel's pay.
Billy Mitchell answered by resigning from the Army. Billy Mitchell
retired to "Boxwood," a 120-acre estate near Middleburg.
Va., 40 mi..from Washington, turned energetically to gentleman farming.
The country may have forgotten Farmer Mitchell but Farmer Mitchell had
not forgotten U. S. aviation. He -wrote articles for Liberty,
Aeronautics, Satevepost. The Hearst papers clamoring for a sky black
with U. S. warplanes, gave him a ready ear. He could see no difference
in administration sentiment after Herbert Hoover was inaugurated.
But in 1931, while he was predicting that Japanese planes would soon
be streaking for Alaska, he made another prophecy: that Franklin D.
Roosevelt would be the next U. S. President. Thus enrolled in the
select "For Roosevelt Before Chicago'' band, Billy Mitchell
after Chicago wrote and talked to help elect the Democratic nominee.
When Franklin Roosevelt went into the White House Billy Mitchell's dark
eyes burned. Here was a man who would listen. Of this he was triply
convinced when the domestic airmail contracts were canceled and uproar
began in Washington. Billy Mitchell hastened up from "Boxwood,"
soon began to make front-page headlines remindful of 1925.
To the House Military Affairs Committee he said: "My old program
was defeated because merchants were running the Government.
Merchants are people who sell things. I think President Hoover was a
merchant. Aircraft manufacturers are merchants." Along with
Charles Lindbergh, Clarence Chamberlin and Eddie Rickenbacker he was
invited as an expert to testify before the Senate Committee weighing
new airmail legislation, told it U. S. aviation was ten years behind.
At a Manhattan luncheon he said: "The Curtiss-Wright Corp. and
the United Aircraft & Transport
