Karen Bass: “I greatly appreciate his accommodation of this piece of legislation, which is, interestingly enough, identical word for…”

“I greatly appreciate his accommodation of this piece of legislation, which is, interestingly enough, identical word for word to a similar bill that was introduced on July 16, 1957, by my father when he was serving in the same capacity I am serving in today. The reason for that is that Billy Mitchell was my mother's uncle. As a young child, I grew up in a household where his name came up often, and he was used as an example of the benefits and actions that could occur if you were courageous and you took chances for the good of your country. Clearly, Billy Mitchell was one of these individuals. He was a very small, rather diminutive fellow, about five-one or five-two. He always dressed to the nines, with all of his uniforms, and he carried a swagger stick. What he did not have in stature, he made up for in his presentation. And my mother was much the same way, very small but carried a pretty heavy stick. Billy Mitchell really brought to this country or to the military in this country not only the concept of air power and its importance and significance, which he battled for tirelessly, but he also brought to the fledgling air corps at that time the idea that pilots were going to be brave and courageous and take enormous chances and that they were going to be proud of it.”