Military Spotlight: Thomas R. Mitchell

By Linda L. Austin

Thomas R. Mitchell, III, Captain USN (Retired) had military role models that influenced his path to a career in Navy aviation. His father, Tom Mitchell, Jr., a WWII Army Field Artillery Officer who was in the Battle of Anzio, Italy, retired as a Colonel.

Several incidents with his uncle, Admiral James C. Donaldson, left indelible memories and may have been the deciding factors for his military choice. In the 1943 class of the Naval Academy, his uncle “was kicked out and they accelerate him for the war, and then he became a naval aviator. He was like my image of things.”

Mitchell recounts an early story when he was about 12 years old. “I’ll never forget he was stationed at Quonset Point, RI. We went up there and the Blue Angels were flying, and he took me out to the base… out to the hangar and he was CO of a Banshee squadron. So he took me out and he set me in the seat of his airplane, and I’m like, ‘This is pretty cool.’ He gave me a picture of him hanging on the side of the airplane, on the step with all his flight gear. And he wrote on it, ‘See you in the Blue, Uncle Jimmy.’ And that’s always, you know, kind of stuck with me.”

Uncle Jimmy was still in the Navy when Mitchell joined. Once he saw his uncle while Donaldson was at the Pentagon. “I’m a Navy Lieutenant, and I go to Washington, and he takes me… to the flag mess for lunch. So I’m sitting there (in uniform), Lieutenant Mitchell with all these admirals.”

Like his father and uncle, Mitchell had an illustrative Navy career with 4,908 accident-free flight hours, 1,083 carrier landings, and 86 combat missions. He accrued six Strike Flight Air Medals, two Navy Commendation Medals with Combat “V”, Legion of Merit, three Meritorious Service Medals, two Battle “E” (VA-15 and VA-46), one Safety “S” (VA-46).

Early in his career he had moments when he wondered if he had made the correct choice, however. Back-to-back cruises can disrupt family life. “Tommy was a baby, so I missed almost 14 months of his first 18 months of life.” He seriously contemplated changing courses. It was 1973 when the airlines were not hiring, but the executive officer in the A-7 training squadron approached him with an offer to train the A-7 pilots since he had been a Landing Signal Officer, LSO. After discussing it with his wife Susan, they decided to continue in the Navy. One incentive was their mutual love of the Navy people which was important to them.

During the Vietnam War in 1968 and 1969, Mitchell was deployed on the USS Intrepid flying A-4 Skyhawks when an F-4 was shot down. “It was a night flight into North Vietnam… and we were supposed to go in and try to locate him. So we’re in there running around and searching. I mean, it’s dark, it’s nighttime. And I tried to call to see if we can raise them up.” The call sign was Dakota 206, so they kept repeating on the radio Dakota 206 hoping to get a location. Suddenly the electronics alerted them that they were being tracked by radar. “Sure enough, they start shooting SAMs at us, so we managed to evade and get out of there.”

The story takes up years later when Mitchell started wondering what had happened to the pilots, so he started researching and found that they had been captured. “I finally found the Shoot Down Report and it gave the name of the pilot and the Navy Flight Officer (NFO). I found a phone number for the gentleman who was the pilot, Mark Gartley, so I dialed it up. Phone rang, guy answered. And you know what I did? I said, ‘Is this Dakota 206?’ And the guy goes, ‘Yes, it is,’ and it was him. He was on the lake in Maine in a boat fishing, so I found him.” It was a satisfying culmination to the incident.

When asked about his greatest challenge, Mitchell answered, “You know. I think it was trying to be fair to all concerned, to the troops, particularly. I had a real heart for them. And of course, to your officers and everybody.”

Being a squadron commanding officer of VA-46, deployed on the USS Kennedy and America, was his most memorable assignment. The squadron were the Clansmen which came from the first CO, Commander Clifford McDougal. “They adopted their tartan, their mottos, their Crest, everything, so we were a very, very Scottish squadron, and I met the chief of the Clan when I was in Scotland.”

A previous CO of the squadron had hosted the head of the clan, Madam MacDougall in Edinburgh, inviting her to the ship when it was in port there. When Mitchell was in Edinburgh, he decided he should do the same. She had not responded to a written invitation, so another couple, his wife, and he rode to Oban, where the ancestral home is located, found a phone booth, and looked up MacDougall.

“There were lots of MacDougalls, but there was one that said Madam MacDougall, so I called the number, a lady answered, and I said, ‘Is this Madam MacDougall?’ She said, ‘Why, yes, it is.’”

After introducing himself and mentioning the invitation, she said that she had written him back. However, he had never received it. She said, “Well, to be honest, I just can’t travel… I was writing you to say, can you visit me?”

When Mitchell replied, “You’re in luck, we’re here” she invited them to high tea. “She gave us quite a lot of joy. It was incredible.” Instead of ancestry.com, Mitchell

commented, “Well, she was MacDougall. com, who had all the records of the clan, and it was all manual in those days.” He continued to invite her to Change of Commands knowing she could not attend. In the 1990s, he received notice that she had died.

Mitchell’s last duty was CO, FACSFAC San Diego where he was able to get his Airline Transport Pilot rating on his last flight in the Navy. He retired after 27 years and nine months, then moved to Memphis for five years while he worked for FedEx working in the 727 Flight Training Department.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, but moving multiple times during his youth, Mitchell still claims Alabama as his home state. He graduated from Auburn University with a BS in Industrial Management. He established a scholarship at Auburn in memory of his grandfather which now, also, includes his name.

From college he went to Pensacola, FL, for flight school where he met his wife, Susan. They have two children, Tommy and Amy. Tommy is a partner with Cambridge Associates in Washington, DC. He has two girls: Riley (14) and Ferris (11). Amy is in Orlando, FL, where she is a flight attendant with Southwest Airlines. She has one son, Cash (11).

Mitchell keeps his ties with the Navy. He is a member of the Tailhook Association, Navy League, the Military Officers Association, and Association of Naval Aviators. In addition, he is an active resident of Coronado serving in the Rotary Club and the Historical Association. He is a member of the Missions Committee at Graham Memorial where he is the rep on the committee for the Curry missionaries. Stephen Curry grew up in Coronado and graduated from CHS. Mitchell’s involvement in the community leaves little time for his tennis game.

Even though Mitchell mentions the separations from family and some harrowing moments when enemy fire was tracking him, he has a stock pile of interesting memories. In a retirement course he was asked what he enjoyed most in the Navy. His affection for Navy people ranked high. “I love being in training and helping people.”