Date:	Friday 5 February 1943
Time:	16:15
Type:	Curtiss P-40E Warhawk
Owner/operator:	358th FSqn /355th FGp USAAF
Registration:	40-412
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Stony Face Mountain five miles SSW of Dalton, Georgia -   United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	Herbert Smart Field, Macon, GA
Destination airport:	LaFayette, Indiana

Narrative:
On Friday, 5 February 1943, 2nd Lt Theodore B. Marxson, the new commanding officer of 358th FS, 355th FG (since only three days), took off from Orlando AAB, Florida on what was classified as a a routine cross-country navigation training flight from Smart Field, Macon, Georgia to Bowman Field, Louisville, Kentucky. The 24-year old pilot was apparently flying home to his hometown, LaFayette, Indiana, since he was asking about weather reports all the way to Indianapolis. Marxson was possibly trying to get home for the weekend (the latter being supposed based on the crash report). The 355th at that time was assigned to the School of Applied Tactics in Orlando and shipped out a couple of weeks later (adding to the reasoning for the supposition about Marxson’s trip home). He was very insistent about getting home as evidenced by his comments made to ground personnel at Macon during his trip north.

He made it as far as Macon when the weather started closing-in and he tried once to head north but turned back to Macon when he was in the vicinity of Atlanta. He checked with the weather folks again at Herbert Smart Field and then took off north again despite being warmed that adverse weather would be prevalent along his proposed route.

As he was flying near Dalton, Georgia, he was evidently trying to maintain visual contact with the ground when he flew his P-40E 40-412 into the side of Stony Face Mountain five miles SSW of Dalton at 1615 hrs. The plane explded into flames upon impact and the pilot was killed instantly.

A local man and his young son heard the plane fly overhead and then the crash. They reported that the mountain was shrounded in fog at the time of the accident.

The aircraft was recovered right after the crash. The report states it was removed to Atlanta.

There is a rock (about the size of two loaves of bread) with engraved inscription on the Pinhoti Trail Section 12 (Dug Gap) that reads:
LT. THEODORE MARXON, A.A.F.
KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY
FEB. 5, 1943

From the North, you enter the trail at Forest Service Road 202. GA12 Section is Snake Creek Gap (Georgia Highway 136) to Dug Gap. Location coordinates: N 34 43.583’ W085 01.193’.

"Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents in the United States, 1941-1945. Volume 1, January 1941-June 1943", by Anthony J. Mireles. ISBN 0-7864-2788-4
http://www.sewreckchasing.com/Projects.html (no more online)
http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/AARmonthly/Feb1943S.htm
https://pacaeropress.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=2846210&trail= (no more online)
https://pacaeropress.websitetoolbox.com/printthread?id=1900128
http://www.armyairforces.com/P40-Crash-Feb-1943-m99276.aspx (no more online)
http://usafunithistory.com/PDF/0300/358%20FIGHTER%20SQ.pdf
https://www.mapquest.com/latlng/34.7275,-85.02

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Nov-2017 09:38	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Time, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
16-Mar-2020 09:04	DG333	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Operator]