Where Have all the Mitchells Gone?
Abstract
William "Billy" Mitchell seems an ironic professional focal point for a military service characterized today by careful managers on the leading edge of American technology. Yet, each of the famous architects of the bright legend that spawned an independent U.S. Air Force rode the shock wave of Mitchell's defiant vision. Henry "Hap" Arnold, Carl "Tooey" Spaatz, and Ira C. Eaker were famous disciples of a combat leader whose cashiered career set in motion a triumph he would not live to see. He received the Medal of Honor posthumously. In a lucid piece recounting the legacy in detail, Lt Col George M. Hall, U.S. Army, wrote of Mitchell, "The individual who responds to the imperatives of honor under circumstances when honor encompasses duty may be tempted to act against the grain of duty when it does not coincide with the same imperatives." Mitchell, in an Army uniform, cut across the grain of a tradition that considers "military individualism" a potential spoiler of democracy. Speaking independently, he precipitated an expected reaction by the institutional leadership of the older services. Prof. Stanley Falk determined that "individualized values are a threat to the entire range of traditional military norms." Mitchell was the upshot, deliberately and quite legitimately dispatched by a military tribunal that recognized him as a threat to its order and stability. Yet, he looms large at the Academy, where a thousand and more formative minds can collectively consider his compelling gaze and reflect that rugged countenance. What must the enshrinement of such a noble man mean to young people still being nurtured on the rudiments of airpower? Should they incline themselves to emulate the principled performance of that exemplar? Could they succeed by doing so?
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA531134
Entities
People
- Timothy E. Kline
Organizations
- Air University