William C. Lee, Marker H-50
Posted by: 
showbizkid
N 35° 18.524 W 078° 36.796
17S E 716993 N 3909894
William C. Lee is the father of the U.S. Army Airborne program.
Waymark Code: WMEQJ
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 06/12/2006
Views: 32
An infantry officer in World War I, William C. ("Bill") Lee graduated from the American and French tank schools in 1929-1930 and later served as a military attache in France and Great Britain. During the 1930s, Lee became painfully aware of German innovations in airborne warfare. A new war was looming, one that would be characterized by speed, mobility and surprise. When Germany used paratroopers and glider men in their "blitzkrieg" in Western Europe in May 1940, the United States War Department turned to Bill Lee to create the same capability for America.
Lee, by then a lieutenant colonel, was ready. He oversaw the work of the U.S. Army Test Platoon at Fort Benning, Georgia, activated the Provisional Parachute Group in 1941 and brought Airborne Command to Fort Bragg, North Carolina in March 1942. Promoted to general officer, Lee pushed the development of airborne divisions, becoming in August 1942 the first commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, the "Screaming Eagles".
By D-Day, an Army of tens of thousands of paratroopers and glider troopers was prepared to fight the enemy in Europe and the Pacific. Bill Lee was the architect of these airborne forces that were the "point of the sword" for the United States Army in World War II. Lee suffered from either a heart attack or stroke in 1944 and retired to his hometown of Dunn, NC. Bill Lee died there in 1948.
Lee's home is one block from this marker and is now an Airborne Museum.
To record your own visit to this waymark, take and post your own photo of the marker and upload it with your log. Los must contain the required photo, please, as proof of your visit.Lee's Home In Dunn; Now an Airborne Museum:
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