Billy Mitchell - Posthumous Recognition

Posthumous Recognition

Mitchell's concept of a battleship's vulnerability to air attack under "war-time conditions" would be vindicated after his death; a number of warships were sunk by air attack alone during World War II. The battleships Conte di Cavour, Arizona, Utah, Oklahoma, Prince of Wales, Roma, Musashi, Tirpitz, Yamato, Schleswig-Holstein, Impero, Limnos, Kilkis, Marat, Ise and Hyūga were all put out of commission or destroyed by aerial attack including bombs, air-dropped torpedoes and missiles fired from aircraft. Some of these ships were destroyed by surprise attacks in harbor, others were sunk at sea after vigorous defense. However, most of the sinkings were carried out by aircraft carrier-based planes, not by land-based bombers as envisioned by Mitchell. The world's navies had responded quickly to the Ostfriesland lesson.

• The North American B-25 Mitchell bomber, introduced in 1941, is the only American military aircraft type to ever be named after a specific person. Nearly 10,000 Mitchell were produced, including the sixteen bombers which Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his raiders used to bomb Tokyo and four other Japanese targets in April 1942.
• In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt, in recognizing Mitchell's contributions to air power, elevated him to the rank of major general (two stars) on the Army Air Corps retired list and petitioned the U.S. Congress to posthumously award Mitchell the Congressional Gold Medal, "in recognition of his outstanding pioneer service and foresight in the field of American military aviation." It was awarded in 1946.
• In the 1943 classic World War II movie A Guy Named Joe the unnamed "General" who gives the deceased pilot his new assignment was "probably modeled after Billy Mitchell."
• In 1955, the Air Force Association passed a resolution calling for the voiding of Mitchell's court-martial. The Association named their Institute for Airpower Studies for the General; the current director is Rebecca Grant.
• The 1955 motion picture The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, directed by Otto Preminger, portrays Mitchell's plight in a dramatic and vindicating light.
• Inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1966.
• In 1968, the United States Board on Geographic Names officially named Mount Billy Mitchell in the Chugach Mountains, near the city of Valdez in Southcentral Alaska. This was in recognition of his central role in overseeing the construction of the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS) while he was stationed in the District of Alaska from 1900–1904.
• In 1971, Pipes and Drums, the Billy Mitchell Scottish, was created in Milwaukee to honor Mitchell and his ties to Scotland and Milwaukee.
• General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is named after him, as is the much smaller Billy Mitchell Airport in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
• Mitchell Hall, the cadet dining facility at the United States Air Force Academy, was dedicated in honor of Mitchell in 1959.
• William (Billy) Mitchell High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is also named after him.
• Turn 13 at the Road America race circuit near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, is also known as Bill Mitchell Bend. The bridge near that turn was named for him, the Billy Mitchell Bridge, but that was removed in 2006 for circuit homologation as it was the subject of an investigation after numerous serious crashes, including a 1970 crash that killed Jerry Titus and a 2001 CART crash that injured Memo Gidley, and made the circuit unsuitable for motorcycles.
• At George Washington University in Washington, D.C., General Mitchell was honored by his alma mater with the naming of a large residence building, William Mitchell Hall.
• The Civil Air Patrol cadet program includes an award called the General Billy Mitchell Award, signifying the rank of Cadet 2nd Lieutenant, and completion of several tests and essays.
• The U.S. Air Force Pipe Band, which existed as a free-standing unit within the U.S. Air Force Band between 1960 and 1970, wore a tartan created in honor of Billy Mitchell.
• In 1999, General Mitchell's portrait was put on a U.S. postage stamp. Although the 55-cent stamp met an airmail rate and portrayed a figure important to the development of aviation, it was not marked or issued as an airmail stamp. It also met the two-ounce first-class rate in effect at the time.
• In 2004, Congress voted to reauthorize the president to posthumously commission Mitchell as a major general in the Army, which the president did in 2005.
• On May 18, 2006, the U.S. Air Force unveiled two prototypes for new service dress uniforms, referencing the service's heritage. One, modeled on the United States Army Air Service uniform, was designated the "Billy Mitchell heritage coat" (the other was named for Hap Arnold). Ironically, the Air Service (including Mitchell) campaigned persistently against the high-collar blouse, which was the Army's regulation uniform coat of the time, because of its chafing effect on pilots' necks. In 1924 they succeeded and adopted the "turned-down" collar style blouse shown as the "Hap Arnold" uniform.
• In 2007, the Air Force first awarded the Air Force Combat Action Medal, which is based on the insignia painted on Billy Mitchell's own aircraft during World War I.