Postwar Air Service politics and naval aviation

Mitchell returned from France expecting to direct the Air Service, but Pershing placed artillery officer Charles Menoher in command to keep aviation integrated with the Army's ground forces. Mitchell instead headed a wartime aeronautics office that soon disappeared during reorganization. His temporary rank fell, his duties shifted, and the Air Service became a recognized Army combat arm behind infantry and artillery. A later recess appointment restored him as assistant chief and made him the senior Air Service colonel below Menoher. Mitchell interpreted that position as a path to eventual command while continuing to argue that air power should become a separate service. The sequence explains why administrative status, doctrine, and personal ambition became inseparable in his postwar campaign.