James Thomas Fitz-Gerald, Jr.
Captain, USAF
(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.
Continued
(side 2)
After World War II, Fitz-Gerlad, 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.
Marker is at the intersection of Elm Avenue and 3rd Street, on the right when traveling south on Elm Avenue.
Courtesy hmdb.org
