From first flight lessons to opposing a separate aviation branch

Mitchell first saw powered flight in 1908 and pursued civilian flying lessons when Army age restrictions prevented official training. His position on the General Staff made him an aviation witness in the 1913 legislative hearings. He testified against separating Army aviation from the Signal Corps, despite his later campaign for an independent air force. A claim that his visit to Russo-Japanese War battlefields produced a prediction of inevitable war with Japan remains unsubstantiated here: no dependable reference had been found. The suggestion that the United States and Japan nearly went to war in 1914 is also rejected, because their relationship had not yet reached that point.