Chuck Yeager ... Smart enough to get to BG though.
Check the rest of the story. COL Yeager was being a fighter jock, drinking with LTs and CPTs and generally setting a bad example for his subordinates. He was a hero so he couldn't be busted out or passed over for it. So the AF promoted him.

Ahhh... The legacy of the WW II AAF, where a screwed up pilot was still a valuable commodity and would probably die on the next mission anyways. Under those circumstances it was cost effective to avoid formal procedings, but the attitudes carried over into peacetime and became part of the culture.

Now Hap Arnold and Billy Mitchell were products of the interwar Infantry mafia dictating that anything with an engine had to be focused on its relation to the dismounts... Sorry, the foot-soldiers, the centerpiece of the military. Arnold and Mitchell were buddies with Patton during the period when he was working on the emerging armor and armor doctrine. That led to him 'checking out' and focusing on his social life and sports while commanding a cav sqdn at Ft. Myers.

Yes, the AF has issues, but never forget that most of them trace back to Army practices during WWII and the interwar period.