Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

It's National Coffee Day. During the Battle of Bataan, sailors who were organized into the Provisional Naval Battalion dyed their white uniforms with coffee grounds in an attempt to blend in with the jungle. However, the coffee actually made the uniforms bright unnatural yellow, which confused the Japanese who thought the sailors were a suicide squad trying to draw fire and reveal enemy positions...from the diary of a dead Japanese officer. The sailors of the Naval Battalion eventually joined the 4th Marines and got USMC uniforms.




Sept 29, 1925: Legendary Army Air Service Col. Billy Mitchell, wife Elizabeth at his side, arrives for hearings at the Capitol on the state of military aviation. He calls for creation of an air force separate from the Army and Navy and blasts War Dept. leaders and the White House for their "incapacity."

“Portraying future wars as certain to be fought in the air, Mitchell pointed out that England might assail the Atlantic coast with airships...while the Pacific would be assailed by Japan or a combination of Asiatic powers sailing in planes from Siberia to the coast of Alaska.” He made front page newspaper headlines across the country.



The military industrial complex finally realized he was right 22 years later, but still unwilling to give a posthumous promotion.

He publicly attacked superiors in the Army, Navy and even the White House, making a statement to the New York Times, Dec. 6, 1919 that read: "The United States had produced practically no aerial war equipment since the armistice and consequently, is not capable of meeting any first class power in the air today, as foreign countries had continued development of wartime equipment."

Congress and the Navy reluctantly gave in and on July 20 and 21, 1921, Mitchell and the 1st Provisional Air Brigade demonstrated to the world the superiority of air power.

He and his unit sank the famous, "unsinkable," Ostfriesland, a captured German battleship.

However, the Navy was not pleased with the outcome of the tests; countering that Mitchell cheated by exceeding the parameter of the tests.

Nonetheless, the Navy began developing aircraft carriers, while Congress continued to cut the Air Service's budget.

Mitchell's frustration climaxed after the Navy's airship Shenandoah crashed due to weather in September 1925. Mitchell publicly accused the Navy and War Departments of "incompetence and criminal negligence."

In a statement to the press, he said, "Brave airmen are being sent to their deaths by armchair admirals who don't care about air safety."

That published statement was the beginning of the end of Mitchell's military career.

In November 1925, Mitchell was called to Washington D.C. and court-martialed on the charge of "Conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline and in a way to bring discredit upon the military service."

Mitchell was convicted of insubordination, but rather than serve a five-year suspension, Mitchell decided to resign his commission.

During retirement in Virginia, he continued to be outspoken on the importance of air power. He wrote books, newspaper and magazine articles, and gave lecture tours until his death, Feb. 11, 1936.

Mitchell received several honors following his death including a posthumous promotion to major general by President Harry Truman.

A military aircraft bomber, the B-25 Mitchell, was named after him. In 1979, Mitchell was inducted in the International Hall of Fame.

William 'Billy' Mitchell -- 'The father of the United States Air Force' (US Army website)

The author of the Army website article is wrong regarding posthumous promotion to major general. It was attempted (multiple times) but the bill failed to pass.

In a nutshell here's how the very long saga played out:

In 1940, a bill was introduced in Congress that sought to posthumously promote Mitchell to the rank of major general, but it did not pass. A similar bill was drafted in 1942 to promote Mitchell to brigadier general. According to the Office of Air Force History, "this effort failed to follow the normal process, which called for the War and Navy Departments to submit recommendations to the White House." 

Instead, only the Senate participated, and passed a joint resolution. Reportedly, "this approach did require the approval of the House, which was not forthcoming." As a result, Mitchell did not actually receive a posthumous promotion, although many misunderstood the Senate resolution as authorizing this bill. Bills were introduced in 1943 to promote Mitchell to brigadier general and also to major general, which did not pass. In 1945, the same legislation was introduced for a promotion to major general, but it also did not pass. Another bill was introduced in July 1947 to the same effect which did not pass either.

Efforts to promote Mitchell continued in vain into the late 1950s, when the director of the Air Force Records Center added a document to Mitchell’s personnel file claiming that "on 18 July 1947, a special bill was passed by Congress promoting General Mitchell to the rank of major general." In fact, however, the bill only passed in the Senate on July 16, 1947; it never gained the consent of the House.

Mitchell’s promotion to major general was finally authorized in 2004, when Rep. Perkins Bass  (R-N.H.), a relative of Mitchell’s, successfully inserted a provision into the FY05 defense bill. However, the promotion reportedly did not occur; congressional authorization merely permitted the action and could not require it be carried out.  Air Force Lt. Col. William Ott reflected in the Air & Space Power Journal that the promotion would be “a pyrrhic victory,” since it would not “erase the questionable actions that proceeded from [Mitchell’s] passionate advocacy of air power’s independence.”

There is no dispute that Mitchell was never posthumously promoted. However, at this writing, the mistaken promotion claim still appears on the official Air Force website for Medal of Honor recipients. The website incorrectly claims that in 1947, “a special bill of Congress promoted him to major general.” Indeed, the claim that Mitchell is a Medal of Honor recipient is also untrue. Congress recognized Mitchell with a Congressional Gold Medal in 1946, not a Medal of Honor. The bill’s sponsor did not understand the difference, leading to the measure’s original language that would have authorized a Medal of Honor. The House Committee on Military Affairs discovered the error and amended the bill to remove all substantive references to the Medal of Honor, and clarified that “the legislation under consideration does not authorize an award of the Congressional Medal of Honor.” Nevertheless, the title of the bill—Authorizing the President of the United States to award posthumously in the name of Congress a Medal of Honor to William Mitchell—was never corrected, which understandably misled many readers.

The Air Force presumably advanced mistaken claims about Mitchell in good faith, but with many historical and legislative resources at their disposal, it is difficult to explain why these errors remain uncorrected.

Four Air Corps and Air Force Leaders and the Shadows that Remain

The Air & Space Forces magazine article is correct as a cursory search showed many, many articles with misleading info on Billy Mitchell's promotion. Mitchell is often referred to as a "brigadier general (temporary)" because of his holding temporary rank during World War I and later after the war, although his permanent official grade has always remained colonel both during his temporary service as a general officer as well as at the time he resigned. He was never officially promoted beyond full bird colonel. Yet his portrait photo from early 1920s shows him in brigadier general uniform. I guess his chest full medals more than makes up for the temporary rank and should of been granted to Major general (2-stars).

He was court martialed for being right, as he predicted the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in WW2. The story of William "Billy" Mitchell, the father of the United States Air Force. Contains rare historical footage, the biography of Jimmy Doolittle, and the Doolittle Raid, as the North American B-25 takes his name after Colonel Mitchell. I guess his tombstone inscription is more less permanent.

Court Martialed For Being Right! Colonel Billy Mitchell, The Father Of The United States Air Force:

The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) had an all-star cast.
Gary Cooper, Rod Steiger, Elizabeth Montgomery, Jack Lord, Peter Graves, Darren McGavin, James Daly.




Sept 29, 1954: Pilotless Bombers Arrive in Germany... The 69th is equipped with 75 Martin B-61 Matador pilotless bombers. The First Pilotless Bomber Squadron (Light) was activated at Patrick Space Force Base, Florida on October 1, 1951.


The first operational surface-to-surface cruise missile designed and built by Glenn L. Martin Company, armed with the W5 nuclear warhead. Similar in concept to the German V-1 Buzz Bomb but w/radio remote control for course correction.
Space Force Museum

The W5 nuclear warhead, a pure fission weapon had sub-variants with yields of 6, 16, 55, 60, 100, and 120 kilotons have been reported. The W5 nuclear warhead was used as the primary fission trigger in Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device in history.



Sept 29, 1954: After the usual lengthy British procrastinating, the convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), was signed. CERN was originally devoted to the study of atomic nuclei, but was soon applied to higher-energy physics, and the study of interactions between subatomic particles. The 'purpose' of CERN has 3 themes:


The CERN Community; A Mechanism for Effective Global Collaboration? By Mark Robinson, Durham University.


Sept 29, 1957: Experts See More Peril In Vaccine Than in Flu
"The consensus was: Don't worry about getting vaccinated; you probably are better off without it. If you get the flu, go to bed and treat the symptoms.




Sept 29, 1957: A LESSON IN TEXAS DEMOCRACY
"There is racial turmoil elsewhere in the US, but in Uvalde, TX where integration of schools has been in effect for two years, four boys of varying backgrounds raise the national banner without strain or conflict." Meanwhile, Atomic Blast Lights Up West!




"If you weren't willing to push the button, you wouldn't stay in the program." - Tommy Metcalf, former nuclear sub tech and convicted killer.



'Boomer' of a story: Security Meltdown

Tommy H. Metcalf, 33, in 1990 pleaded guilty to 1st degree murder of an elderly couple in 1989 to avoid the death sentence. He was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. Seattle Times article from June 1990.