Around Our Town with Gene Merritt
June 20,
Blog # 37

Arthur “Bluey” Bluethenthal c. 1911

In a recent blog I wrote about Angie’s Bed and Breakfast at 17th and Market Streets in Wilmington, I mentioned that her house was formerly the home of Arthur “Bluey” Bluethenthal, known by many locally as a WWI hero.

I thought it would be appropriate to mention Arthur in a blog because he is such a famous person and the pride of Wilmington.

If you look at the logical phonetically correct pronunciation of his last name, you will say Blue-then-thal. But that’s not the way we pronounce it around these parts. We call it Blee-den-thal.

Arthur is a famous war hero from Wilmington. Bluethenthal Field, home of Wilmington International Airport, is named after Arthur.

Attached to this introduction is some anecdotal information about him, taken from various sources, mainly Wikipedia.

Arthur Bluethenthal

Birth: Born in Wilmington, NC on November 1, 1881

Death: June 5, 1918 (age 26)

Maignelay-Montigny, Department de l”Oise, Picardie, France

Burial: Oakdale Cemetery

Plot: Section G, Hebrew Section, Grave Space: Lot 28

Memorial ID: 8146770

Football player: A First Team All-American center for Princeton University in 1911 and a Third Team All-American pick in 1912.

In 1916, prior to the U.S. involvement, he joined the American Ambulance Field Service as an ambulance driver and later served in the Lafayette Flying Corps, Escadrille 227, as a bomber pilot, along with other Americans in service for France. When America entered the war in 1917, arrangements were made for Bluethenthal to serve with United States Naval Aviation.

He was shot down in combat on June 5, 1918 near Maignelay, France, 50 miles north of Paris, being the first North Carolinian killed in WWI. He was buried in France. His body was brought home in 1921 and reinterred in Oakdale Cemetery. On Memorial Day, May 30, 1928, the Wilmington airport was named Bluethenthal Field in his honor.