Editing Billy Mitchell (section)

==Early life==
[[File:William Lendrum Mitchell (full shot).jpg|thumb|Mitchell as assistant chief of Air Service (in non-regulation uniform)]]

Born in [[Nice]], France, to [[John L. Mitchell]], a wealthy [[Wisconsin]] [[United States Senate|senator]],<ref name=bio/> and his wife Harriet Danforth (Becker), Mitchell grew up on an estate in North [[Greenfield, Wisconsin]], which is now the [[Milwaukee]] suburb of [[West Allis, Wisconsin]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nWUNAwAAQBAJ&q=%22Harriet+Danforth+Becker%22&pg=PA224|title = Danforth genealogy|isbn = 978-5877066076|last1 = May|first1 = J. J.|year = 1979| publisher=Рипол Классик }}</ref> Mitchell's father served in the [[American Civil War]] as a first lieutenant in the [[24th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment]] along with future general [[Arthur MacArthur Jr.|Arthur MacArthur]] (the father of General [[Douglas MacArthur]]). The elder Mitchell served as a United States senator from 1883 to 1889.

His paternal grandfather, [[Alexander Mitchell (Wisconsin politician)|Alexander Mitchell]], a [[Scottish people|Scotsman]], established what became the [[Milwaukee Road]] railroad and the Marine Bank of Wisconsin. [[Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory#Mitchell Park|Mitchell Park]] and the shopping precinct of Mitchell Street were named in honor of Alexander. His paternal grandmother, [[Martha Reed Mitchell]], was well known in charity, art and society circles.

Mitchell's sister [[Ruth Mitchell|Ruth]] fought with the [[Chetniks]] in Yugoslavia during World War II and later wrote a book about her brother, ''My Brother Bill''.

Mitchell was accepted into [[Columbian University]] (later renamed George Washington University) in Washington, D.C., but dropped out to join the [[United States Army]] during the [[Spanish–American War|Spanish-American War]], though he eventually graduated from the school.<ref>{{cite web |title=William Mitchell |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Mitchell |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |access-date=November 8, 2024}}</ref> While there he was a member of [[Phi Kappa Psi]] fraternity.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Phi Kappa Psi (1991). Grand Catalogue of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity (13th ed.)|publisher=Publishing Concepts, Inc.|year=1991|pages=278, 466}}</ref> Upon dropping out of Columbian at age 18, he enlisted in the United States Army as a [[Private (rank)|private]] and was mustered into [[Company (military unit)|Company]] M of the [[1st Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment (1898)|1st Wisconsin Infantry Regiment]] on May 14, 1898.<ref>{{cite web |title=William Mitchell |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Mitchell |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=November 8, 2024}}</ref> Mitchell was immediately assigned and [[Mobilization|mobilized]] into [[Brigadier general (United States)|Brigadier General]] [[Arthur MacArthur Jr.|Arthur MacArthur]]'s command in the [[Philippines]], where MacArthur was placed in charge of the Department of Northern Luzon in the spring of 1899.<ref name=Clayton>{{cite book|last1=Clayton|first1=James D.|title=The Years of MacArthur Volume 1 1880–1941|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|year=1970|location=Boston|pages=32–33, 65}}</ref> Mitchell participated in operations against [[Filipinos#Hispanic settlement and rule (1521–1898)|Filipino]] [[Insurgency|insurgents]] in northern and central [[Luzon]]<ref name=Clayton /> at the end of the Spanish-American War and during the [[Philippine–American War]]. He quickly gained a [[Officer (armed forces)|commission]] due to his father's influence and joined the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|U.S. Army Signal Corps]].

Following the cessation of hostilities, Mitchell remained in the Army. From 1900 to 1904, Mitchell was posted in the [[District of Alaska]] as a lieutenant in the Signal Corps. On May 26, 1900, the [[United States Congress]] appropriated $450,000 to establish a communications system connecting the many isolated and widely separated U.S. Army outposts and civilian [[Nome Gold Rush|Gold Rush]] camps in Alaska by [[Electrical telegraph|telegraph]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sewardpeninsula.com/s/Billy-Mitchell.pdf|title=William Lendrum Mitchell}}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Along with Captain George C. Brunnell, Lieutenant Mitchell oversaw the construction of what became known as the [[Alaska Communications System|Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System]] (WAMCATS).<ref name=Egbert2003>{{cite book|author1=United States Bureau of Land Management|author2=Eagle Historical Society & Museums|title=Eagle-Fort Egbert: A Remnant of the Past|chapter=A new mission|pages=10–12|publisher=United States Bureau of Land Management|location=Fairbanks, Alaska|year=2003|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DDS0zjLOQM4C&q=June+27%2C+1903+WAMCATS&pg=PA1905}}</ref> He predicted as early as 1906, while an instructor at the Army's Signal School in [[Fort Leavenworth]], Kansas, that future conflicts would take place in the air, not on the ground.

In 1908, as a young Signal Corps officer, Mitchell observed Orville Wright's flying demonstration at [[Fort Myer]], [[Virginia]]. Mitchell took flight lessons at the [[Curtiss Flying School]] at [[Newport News, Virginia]].

In March 1912, after assignments in the Philippines that saw him tour battlefields of the [[Russo-Japanese War]] and conclude that war with Japan was inevitable one day,{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} Mitchell was one of 21 officers selected to serve on the [[General Staff]]—at the time, its youngest member at age 32. He appeared in August 1913 at legislative hearings considering a bill to make Army aviation a branch separate from the Signal Corps and testified against the bill. As the only Signal Corps officer on the General Staff, he was chosen as temporary head of the [[Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps]], a predecessor of the present day [[United States Air Force]], in May 1916, when its head was reprimanded and relieved of duty for [[malfeasance]] in the section. Mitchell administered the section until the new head, Lieutenant Colonel [[George O. Squier]], arrived from attaché duties in London, England, where World War I was in progress, then became his permanent assistant. In June, he took private flying lessons at the [[Curtiss Flying School]] because he was proscribed by law from aviator training by age and rank, at an expense to himself of $1,470 (approximately $33,000 in 2015).<ref>Miller, Roger G. (2004). ''Billy Mitchell: "Stormy Petrel of the Air"''. Office of Air Force History: Washington, D.C., pp. 3–5. The Act of July 18, 1914, creating the Aviation Section restricted aviation training to unmarried lieutenants under the age of 30.</ref> In July 1916, he was promoted to [[Major (United States)|major]] and appointed Chief of the Air Service of the First Army.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mitchellgallery.org/gen-mitchell/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420092328/http://www.mitchellgallery.org/gen-mitchell/ |archive-date=April 20, 2016 |title=General William 'Billy' Mitchell |publisher=Mitchell Gallery of Flight}}</ref>