Engaging North Carolina
Beaufort County
Quick Facts
Students: 95Applicants: 80
Alumni: 625
Park Scholars: 0
Goodnight Scholars: 2
Caldwell Fellows: 1
Loblolly pines grow at the International Forest Company nursery outside Washington.
Loblolly pines grow at the International Forest Company nursery outside Washington.
International Forest Company nursery technician and NC State alumnus Rhodes Kelly looks over lobolly pine seedlings at the company's nursery outside Washington.
International Forest Company nursery technician and NC State alumnus Rhodes Kelly looks over lobolly pine seedlings at the company's nursery outside Washington.
International Forest Company nursery technician and NC State alumnus Rhodes Kelly looks over lobolly pine seedlings at the company's nursery outside Washington.
International Forest Company nursery technician and NC State alumnus Rhodes Kelly looks over lobolly pine seedlings at the company's nursery outside Washington.
International Forest Company nursery technician and NC State alumnus Rhodes Kelly looks over lobolly pine seedlings at the company's nursery outside Washington.
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Pride of the Pack
North Carolina’s Youngest Pilot for France
James Henry Baugham, a native of Washington, was just two months into his freshman year at NC State College at the outset of World War I, too young to enlist in the U.S. Army. So he enrolled in a flight training school in Virginia, graduated in just four months and became the youngest pilot from North Carolina to join France’s Lafayette Flying Corps.
After six more months of flight training, Baugham joined fighter squadron Escadrille 157, where he served with distinction. Just days after he was transferred to Escadrille 98, Baugham was caught in a firefight over France, in which he suffered mortal wounds. He died in a French hospital on July 2, 1918, at the age of 19.
Officially credited with two kills, Baugham is North Carolina’s most accomplished native-born fighter pilot to fly for France during World War I. His meritorious service earned him two French decorations: a Croix de Guerre with palm and the Médaille Militaire.
Baugham is one of 35 NC State students, alumni and staff who died during the war that are memorialized in the Memorial Tower. [Read more about James Henry Baugham.]