Mitchell, William Lendrum

(December 29, 1879, Nice – February 19, 1936, New York), United States general. Mitchell recognized the potential of the air weapon early on and in the postwar era became an outspoken advocate for making the Air Service an independent branch of the armed forces. After the entry of the United States into the First World War in 1917 Mitchell, a Signal Corps major who had recently learned to fly, was lucky enough to already be in France as an observer with the Allied forces. …