WW2 Fallen - Marshall Camp, P-40 pilot

Major Marshall Camp's P-40 suffered engine failure on January 4, 1944 leading to his death in Iceland.
http://stridsminjar.is/a-list-of-crash-sites-by-year/incidents-in-1944/119-p-40-warhawk-brimilsvellir-snaefellsnes-january-4-1944

Marshall Pyron Camp could have been 100 years old today. 

He was born on April 3, 1917 in New Mexico. His mother was born in Texas and his father was born in Georgia. His father was an accountant for a railroad office and died in 1937. Marshall had an older sister and two older brothers and a younger sister. His older brother Wilbur, who was serving in the 79th Pursuit Squadron stationed in Shreveport, Louisiana, died in a boating accident on February 16, 1939.

By 1940 Marshall had completed three years of college and was a 2nd lieutenant in the Army Air Corps stationed at the Panama Canal.

After the war started, Camp had been promoted to major and was a P-40 Warhawk pilot in the 33rd Fighter Squadron, 342d Composite Group stationed in Iceland. The 33rd Fighter Squadron participated in air defense, escort patrols, and antisubmarine patrols.

He died on January 4, 1944 from injuries sustained after bailing out of his plane. According to a contemporaneous press report:

Major Camp was flying P-40N s/n 42-105469 on a patrol mission north of Snæfellsnes in extremely bad weather low ceiling blowing snow and high wind. His engine failed and he bailed out and came down in an open field. The aircraft came down at the foot of the mountain Vallnahnúkur.

Few local men went out in the hard weather to rescue the pilot but were unsuccessful. He died from cold and serious injuries, shortly after they reached him. 

Ólafur Bjarnason, a farmer at Brimilsvellir, heard the aircraft but did not see it. A few minutes later he saw the pilot in a parachute. 

After landing the pilot was pulled by the storm several hundred meters over a rocky and frozen ground. This caused the most of his serious injuries. 

Ólafur went out in the strong wind to help the pilot. He searched the area and saw Major Camp on the shore at the bottom of a ca. 15 m. high cliff (Vallnabjarg). The wind had pulled him in his parachute over the edge of the cliff. Ólafur heard Major Camp call for help once and that was the last he heard from him.

The only access to the shore below the cliff was from the sea. Ólafur gathered some neighbors and went on a boat to save the pilot. Major Camp was unconscious when they reached him. He regained consciousness for a short time in the boat but died before being moved to a hospital.

Location where the mortally injured Major Camp was found.
http://stridsminjar.is/a-list-of-crash-sites-by-year/incidents-in-1944/119-p-40-warhawk-brimilsvellir-snaefellsnes-january-4-1944 

His remains were returned to be buried at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery.

Thank you Marshall for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Marshall.

UPDATE:

Dear Mr. Milne,

I was stunned to run across WWII Fallen 100 for April 3, 2017 featuring the crash of my uncle's plane in Iceland.  I wish I possessed the words to describe how your post touched my heart.  I am one of only a four living descendants of Marshall Camp.   The young single pilot died three years before I was born and know very little about his life and death.   My mother did speak of the loss of two of  her brothers during the war and I knew that while circling the base looking for an opening in the weather to land, Marshall ran out of fuel and was forced to parachute out of his plane.  As his story on your blog states, the wind caught his chute and he was pulled over a cliff to be rescued by nearby villagers.  I did not know exactly where this occurred, who rescued him, what plane he was flying and that anyone other than my family knew his story. 

 I'm sure you receive an abundance of letters from people wanting to tell their stories and memories of featured soldiers, but I would like to share a bit more about Major Marshall P. Camp.  

Marshall died on his Mother's birthday (January 4).  After his death, she received a letter he had written her three days before he died.  In the letter he thanked her profusely for being such a wonderful mother and  wrote the following lines...

"I cannot help but think and feel strongly that war on the continent will be over by September.  Surely no nation can long resist the crushing blows to humanity which I know are being delivered in a never-ending stream to Germany.  There will be more bloodshed, yes, but in the end we will have that for which we strive - Freedom!"

When a Captain, Marshall received orders to go to California for an assignment.  The assignment was to be the stand-in pilot for Ronald Reagan in one of his movies.  

My mother was very close to her brother, Marshall.  She followed his career and dreamed of being a ferry pilot herself.  Before my mother passed away, I arranged for her to fly in the plane that Marshall had flown in flight school at Randolph AFB so many years before.

My sincerest thanks for what you do.  It was practically a miracle that I came across your site.  I was doing some research for a friend and Vietnam veteran who is being honored in Washington next month.  Out of the clear blue, I googled "Major Marshall P. Camp" never dreaming there would be anything on him other than perhaps an obituary or pedigree on Ancestry.com.  What a shock.  I have been to Marshall's gravesite at Fort Sam several times and I  now hope to travel to Iceland next year to walk where he left this earth.

Again,

Thank you for honoring the fallen who fought for our "freedom." I will share your site with family and friends.

Sincerely,

Frances Carroll

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