In January 1915 James Roger McConnell left Carthage, N.C. for N.Y. and sailed to France. He volunteered in the American Ambulance Service as an ambulance driver and was awarded the much coveted Croix de Guerre for bravery under fire. He later joined the French Flying Corps and was one of the world's first fighter pilots by the fall of 1915. McConnell was the 4th of seven original founders of the world famous Lafayette Escadrille (N 124), known as the “Darlings of the Air”. McConnell was shot down and killed by 2 German airplanes as he was pursuing another “Boche” plane on March 19th, 1917. He was the last of the group killed before the U.S. entered the war, just a week after his 30th birthday. His friend Kiffin Rockwell from Asheville, N.C. was also one of the founders and was killed before McConnell. McConnell wrote the book “Flying for France,” which was published just before his death in 1917. Another Croix de Guerre was awarded after his death. He is buried outside Paris in the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial. A monument sent by the French Government in late 1917 was placed at the James Rogers McConnell Hospital at Farm Life School in rural Moore County, N.C., then moved to Pinehurst, N.C. when the well could not supply enough water, later moved to the old Town Hall in Carthage, and in 2010 was approved for relocation to Gilliam-McConnell Airfield, where the James Rogers McConnell Chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association is headquartered and plans called for a museum bearing his name across the runway.