As for General Mitchell, whose charges had led to the formulation of this policy, he was tried by Army general court-martial and convicted of violation of the ninety-sixth Article of War. He was sentenced to be suspended from rank, command, and duty, with forfeiture of all pay and allowances for five years. President Coolidge modified the forfeiture of pay and accepted the general’s resignation, to take effect February 1, 1926. Just ten years later, Billy Mitchell died. But one day the United States Congress did create a separate air force, and by then, General Mitchell’s name had been firmly established in his countrymen’s minds as a man who had been martyred for his vision. During the last decade of General Mitchell’s life, Admiral Moffett served continuously as Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, and there founded the technology of naval aviation. It has been said of the contributions of the two men that “Bill Mitchell’s fumble set up the play from which Billy Moffett went on to score.” Just at the peak of his career, the admiral gave his own life to his country in the crash of the rigid airship _Akron_. CHAPTER EIGHT Dwight Morrow Advances the Throttle The Morrow Board policy, for all its wisdom, might have lapsed easily into innocuous desuetude save for the dynamic character of William A. Moffett. Whereas the Army Air Service proclaimed it a whitewash and a denial of their aspirations, the admiral recognized it for what it was, a golden opportunity. And as usual, when it came to capitalizing it, his timing was precise. I was sitting behind my desk in the Engine Section one morning engaged in shoveling the avalanche of papers from “Incoming” to “Outgoing” and feeling much like a fireman on the floor plates of a coal-burning destroyer under forced draft shoveling coal into the insatiable maws of a pair of boilers, when the phone rang. “This is Moffett,” came the admiral’s voice. “I want you to get hold of Du Bose right away. Grab a taxi and come up here to The Hill. You’ll find me in Congressman Butler’s office, Chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee. Bring that estimate on the cost of the Mustin plan. Got it?” “Aye, aye, sir!” “Wait a minute. Change that!” came the staccato bark. “Tell Du Bose to bring the plan. You call up Marvin MacIntyre; tell him to come to the Bureau. Then you write up a news release for him—one like this: ‘The greatest forward step in the history of aviation was taken today when Congressman Butler, Chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee, announced approval of the Moffett five-year Naval Aviation building program.’” “Did he really approve it, Admiral?” I interposed. “Of course not,” came the reply. “He hasn’t even seen it. But when he reads his name in the afternoon _Star_ and looks at the editorial Mac will get for us, he’ll think he invented it himself. Shake a leg now, and send Du Bose on the run.” “How did you work it, sir?” I insisted.