If it weren’t for the performance of Captain Chuck Yeager being the first individual to break the sound barrier in 1947 South Pittsburg’s James (Jim) Thomas Fitzgerald Jr. would have gained such worldwide acclamation and fame. As the second aviator to accomplish such a feat Jim has been relatively anonymous in spite of his many accomplishments in support of his country.
Jim Fitzgerald, Jr.
was born in South Pittsburg, Tn. in 1920 and attended South Pittsburg High School. He graduated in 1938 and served as Vice-President of his senior class. He received an appointment to the United State Military Academy at West Point.
During his youth Jim expressed an early interest in aviation and one of his main interests was working on model airplanes. He won several statewide awards and trophies with his hobby and continued his interest in model planes throughout his life.
In preparation for trying to get an appointment to West Point, Jim enrolled in a six-week training course at Fort Oglethorpe, and won a 50-hour flying scholarship at a fixed based operation in Chattanooga operated by Harry Porter.
He was admitted to West Point on July 1, 1940, and after expressing an interest in aviation he spent the next summer taking flying lessons in Bentonville, South Carolina, where he flew for the first time in the Army and received his wings as an Army aviator.
With the beginning of World War II Jim received fighter training and was sent overseas to England in April 1944 as part of the 78th Fighter group of the Eighth Air Force.
On his 28th combat mission he was shot down and imprisoned at Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Germany. Upon being liberated in April 1945, he was awarded a Purple Heart and the Army Air Corps Air Medal.
Despite his numerous requests to be sent to the Pacific arena to fight the Japanese he was assigned by the Pentagon to be a test pilot in the area of jet propelled aircraft as the military recognized the need to develop the advanced aircraft of the defeated Germans.
In the fall of 1947 he was assigned to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, where research on the rocket plane, the Bell X-1, was being conducted.
After being transferred to Minoc Air Force Base in California he and Chuck Yeager were part of the team of pilots that flew the experimental Bell X-1.
In October 1947, Yeager was the first pilot to break the sound barrier in the X-1 after being dropped from a B-29 bomber “mother ship.”
On his first flight Jim also broke the record of flying higher and faster than anyone except Yeager. While his colleague received international fame as a part of aviation history Fitzgerald did not consider his actions as being historical and it was left to Chuck Yeager to make the announcement to Jim’s family of his accomplishment. For his effort he was awarded another Air Medal.
in his autobiography, Yeager paid tribute to Jim's flying ability as “the best takeoff and landing pilot I ever saw.”
In late 1948 upon returning to the base from the Cleveland, Ohio, air races Jim crashed his T-33 aircraft when on landing his wing hit the ground, cartwheeled and he sustain head injuries that resulted in his death 11 days later on September 20, 1948.
He was buried at the United State Military Academy at West Point with full military honors.
In the many tributes made in his memory he was affectionately described in his modest and unassuming character as “the guy from South Pittsburg who just happened to like to fly.”
On Oct. 29, 2006, Jim’s hometown unveiled a Tennessee historic marker at the South Pittsburg American Legion Hall in his honor 58 years after his death.
The marker was paid for by private donations and sponsored by the South Pittsburg Historic Preservation Society and brought back many memories of one of Marion County’s World War II heroes but who was best known for doing his duty in service of his country and disclaiming all credit for himself.