James Thomas Fitz-Gerald, Jr. Captain, USAF 1920-1948

James Thomas Fitz-Gerald, Jr. Captain, USAF 1920-1948 is a Tennessee historical marker in Marion County.

Marion Co., 300 Elm Avenue,Fitz-Gerald, Jr. (in front of American Legion Hall) Captain, USAF South Pittsburg 1920-1948

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Side 1: Born July 13, 1920 in South Pittsburg, James “Jim” Thomas Fitz-Gerald, Jr. was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1940. Interested in aviation since childhood, he graduated in the first class of “Wings of West Point”. Assigned in April 1944 to the Eighth Air Force in England, he was taken prisoner in August after his plane was shot down over Germany during his twenty-eighth combat mission. He was a POW in Stalag Luft III Prison until liberated in April 1945. Side 2: After World War II, Fitz-Gerald, a U.S. Air Force Captain and decorated veteran, was assigned jet-propelled aircraft development at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Transferred to California's Muroc Air Base, Fitz-Gerald piloted Bell's "XS-1" rocket plane to Mach 1.1 in his first attempt on February 24, 1948, to become the second man to break the sound barrier. Fitz-Gerald died on September 20, 1948, from injuries sustained in a September 9 plane crash in Van Nuys, California. He is buried at West Point.

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1895 · Sewanee, Tennessee (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1924 · South Carolina. Florida. Georgia. Mississippi. Alabama. North Carolina. South Carolina. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1936 · South Pittsburg, Tennessee (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1942 · South Pittsburg, Tennessee (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1943 · South Pittsburg, Tennessee (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

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Marker text and location from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as the Commission publishes them on its marker map.

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On the National Register nearby

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Places within about 300 feet of this marker that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nearby listing is not always the marker's own subject.