FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: AUGUST 16, 2001
Contact Patrick Tremblay, ptremblay@asomf.org (910) 483-3003 ext. 229
MAJOR
GENERAL WILLIAM C. LEE: NORTH CAROLINA NATIVE & “FATHER OF THE AIRBORNE”
FAYETTEVILLE,
NC. A special exhibit on Major
General William C. Lee will open on August 16th, 2001, the 61st
anniversary of the first parachute jumps by U.S. Army infantry soldiers and the
first anniversary of the opening of the Airborne & Special Operations
Museum. Lee’s early life in Dunn, North Carolina, his years at North
Carolina State and Wake Forest Colleges and his Army service from 1917 to 1944
will be told against the backdrop of two world wars.
Uniforms,
equipment, photographs and rare documents will highlight this temporary exhibit.
The story is one of a great soldier, a native of North Carolina who helped shape
the way the U.S. Army fought in World War II. Moreover, Lee’s story and that
of the soldiers he trained is an exciting and important part of North Carolina
history. Every airborne soldier who fought in the war deployed to the
battlefront from Fort Bragg. They have become legends, and it all began with
Bill Lee.
Father
of the Airborne
An
infantry officer in World War I, Bill Lee graduated from the American and French
tank schools in 1929-1930 and later served as a military attaché 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 “lighting war” in Western Europe in May 1940, the United States War
Department turned to Bill Lee to create the same capability for America. Lee,
now 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
From
Dunn to D-Day
A
few hours before the airborne assault that launched the Normandy invasion, Major
General Maxwell D. Taylor, 101st commanding general, had urged his
troopers to remember Lee, their much-loved former commander, by shouting his
name as they jumped into battle. Lee, recuperating from a heart attack at his
home in Dunn, could not make this jump that was the culmination of an
extraordinary four-year effort to create airborne units.
Now, as the jump light in the C-47 airplane turned from red to green,
paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division streamed out into the
night sky over France, shouting “Bill Lee!” as they rushed toward their
“rendezvous with destiny.” It
was the early hours of June 6th, 1944, a date now known to all the
world as “D-Day”. The great crusade to liberate Europe from NAZI tyranny was
underway, and North Carolina was instrumental in spearheading the attack.
Under
Lee’s leadership, the Army activated an experimental test platoon of
forty-eight paratroopers in the summer of 1940. 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.
Bill
Lee died in 1948 in his hometown of Dunn. His
life and times are a vital part of the history of our state and of the nation.
It is a story of duty, honor, courage and sacrifice. It is a story that must
never be forgotten.
The Museum
Located
at 100 Bragg Boulevard in downtown Fayetteville, the Airborne & Special
Operations Museum is part of the U.S. Army Museum System and tells the story of
Army airborne and special operations units from 1940 to the present.
Museum hours: 10am – 5 pm, Tuesdays through Saturdays, Noon – 5 pm
Sundays. Closed Monday; open Federal holiday Mondays.
Admission is free; there is a charge for the Vistascope Movie and
Vista-Dome Motion Simulator.
For
More Information
Visit
the museum website at www.asomf.org.
Media
inquiries may be directed to Sandy Klotz, Executive Director, at (910) 483-3003
ext. 226/ sklotz@asomf.org, or Patrick
Tremblay, Marketing Manager, at ext. 229/ptremblay@asomf.org.
Electronic
photography, brochures or additional literature is available by contacting
Patrick Tremblay.
#
# #