Colonel William “Billy” Mitchell

[Gregory Matthews]

Colonel William “Billy” Mitchell is a real life person who was born in 1879.  He served in the U.S. Army. Which of the following statements are true about him and which are false?

a)  The Review (The SDA one.) recently made him a feature in an article.

'b)  At one time, he was promoted to a one-star rank.  Later he was demoted to the rank of Colonel.

c)  In 1925 he was convicted by a  military court martial, upon which he resigned from the Army.

d)  He was the father of the U.S. Air Force.

e)  He claimed that naval ships could be sunk by aircraft.  In a demonstration of such, he sunk a battleship using methods that he had been ordered not to use.

f)  He served as a U.S spy.

g)  He predicted that the Japanese would successfully attack Pearl Harbor.

h) The claim that he  predicted that attack would come on a Sunday morning lacks objective support.

I)  He died (1936) well before the Pearl Harbor attack.

j)  Ten years after his death (1946) he was awarded the  Medal of Honor.

k)  In 1955 a major movie was made about his life.

[Gregory Matthews]

All of the above are true!

If you check the Internet, you will find much more about him than I have listed and probably more than you want to read.

If you want to know why the Review mentioned him in an article, check out the following:

http://www.adventistreview.org/1611-66

 

 

[Gregory Matthews]

I understand that some people will not want to check out why the Review mentioned him in an article.  So, in my quote below, I will tell you why:

The application,  in my thinking, although not exactly that of the Review is that denominational leaders today may ignore at their peril the voices of SDA members.

It’s worth remembering the story of “Billy” Mitchell not as a reason to advocate for war—heaven forbid—but to note that many important voices are ignored or actively discouraged in the face of reality. Mitchell’s correctness about what airpower could do was abundantly clear to just about anyone looking objectively; America’s leaders ignored his words at their peril.