- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWilliam Lendrum Mitchell
- U.S. Army officer who foresaw -- and unwisely trumpeted -- the need for air power to win land wars. (Unwise, because his candor cost him his career.) He advocated a separate air force, thus incurring the wrath of U.S. army and navy brass. When the navy airship "Shenandoah" went down in 1925, Mitchell accused the government of "incompetency, criminal negligence and almost treasonable administration of the national defense." On account of that statement he was court-martialed for insubordination, and he eventually resigned from the army. The story is wonderfully captured, with Gary Cooper in the role of the general, in The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955).
- IMDb mini biography by: Bill Takacs <kinephile@aol.com>
- SpousesElizabeth Trumbull Miller(October 11, 1923 - February 19, 1936) (his death, 2 children)Caroline Sarah Stoddard(December 2, 1903 - September 22, 1922) (divorced, 3 children)
- RelativesJack Gilpin(Grandchild)Betty Gilpin(Great Grandchild)
- Children with Stoddard: Elizabeth, Harriet, John. Children with Trumbull: Lucy, William Jr.
- Biography in: "National Cyclopædia of American Biography". Vol. XXVI, pp. 21-22. New York: James T. White & Company, 1937.
- Biography in: "Contemporary Authors". Vol. 213, pp. 282-284. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2004.
- Biography in: "American National Biography". Vol. 15, pp. 637-638. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- Biography in: "Dictionary of American Biography". Supplement 2, pp. 460-462. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958.
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