Steve Mitchell Design – Design That Works

• In 1922 he made the first flight to cross the continent in less than a day, or 21 hours, 19 minutes to be exact.
• Earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, writing his dissertation on the effects of wind velocity on flying characteristics at the age of 29.
• Performed an aerobatic demonstration in Argentina with two broken ankles.
• Performed the first successful outside loop in 1927.
• First person to win every major aviation racing trophy.
• Won the Bendix Trophy by setting a new speed record, flying from Burbank, CA to Cleveland, OH in 11 hours, 16 minutes.
• While racing, he set speed records for both the Curtis Navy racer seaplane and a Gee Bee R-1.
• Received the Congressional Medal of Honor for leading his famous “Doolittle Raid”, a carrier-based, B-25 bomber attack on Tokyo and the first U.S. attack on Japan in World War II.
• Commanded the 12th Air Force in North Africa, the 15th in Italy and the 8th in England and Okinawa.
• Was offered but declined a position as NASA’s first administrator.
• After his retirement he became chairman of the board of Space Technology Laboratories.

Alfred Waud was recognized as the best of the Civil War sketch artists who drew the war for the nation’s pictorial press. Waud could render a scene quickly and accurately, with an artist’s eye for composition and a reporter’s instinct for human interest. Read More.

Consider this soldier’s last written words.

“If ya’ll are reading this, then I am on my way to help do my part to ensure the future security of our great nation. I don’t take this charge lightly, or with a cavalier attitude, rather with a resolute heart and a clear conscience. I am strongly convinced that what we are doing is just and worthy of all that could be spent in the effort.”

Did you hear the decision behind the resolve? Those words might have been written by many soldiers from many periods in our history, but these particular words happen to be from Master Sergeant Kelly Hornbeck, Army Special Forces, and were in his last letter home from Iraq. In his case the “worthy effort” cost him everything, but that was a decision he had already made. On Veteran’s Day, we honor the thousands that have made a similar decision to serve, not knowing what it might cost them in the end.

One of my photos from the annual anniversary reenactment event at Kings Mountain National Battlefield in SC.