Our Air Force: The Keystone of National Defense

William (Billy) Mitchell was a U.S. Army officer who, during World War I, came to command all U.S. Army air operations in France. He became a strong believer in air power and predicted that in the next war, bombers would be the decisive weapon. After WWI ended he became a forceful advocate for allocating funds to develop a powerful U.S. Air Force as an independent military branch. At the same time he argued for reducing the Navy's heavy spending on battleships, which he was convinced would be ea