William Carey Lee was born on March 12, 1895 in Dunn, North Carolina. He attended Wake Forest College and North Carolina State College. He participated in the ROTC program and graduated from NC State and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1917. Lee served in World War I with the American Expeditionary Force in France.
By the time the United States entered World War II, he had achieved the rank of major general and was a proponent of paratrooper warfare. Although airborne units were not popular with the top U.S. Army commanders, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sponsored the concept, and Lee organized the first paratroop platoon. This led to the Provisional Parachute Group, and then the United States Airborne Command. General Lee was the first commander at the new parachute school at Fort Benning, in west-central Georgia. He earned the Distinguished Service Medal for his early leadership in airborne forces.
By August 1942, Lee was the first commander of the new 101st Airborne Division, based at Camp Claiborne, in central Louisiana. He promised his new recruits, "The 101st has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny."
Lee helped plan the D-Day drops into Normandy, and had trained to jump with his men, but was sent back to the States a few months before the battle due to either a heart attack or a stroke. He was replaced in command by General Maxwell D. Taylor. To honor their "father", the paratroopers yelled out "Bill Lee!" as they made their jump on D-Day.
Lee retired from the Army in late 1944 and died at Dunn, North Carolina in 1948.
