Leroy "Lee" Solice was born in April 1927 in Robeline, Louisiana with one sister and two brothers. His father married six times. Solice's mother was his sixth wife. They were landowning farmers. When World War 2 started and people began being drafted, that was the end of the farming. Solice grew up in Spanish Lake, five miles from Robeline proper. His great-grandfather fought in the Civil War [Annotator's Note: American Civil War, 12 April 1861 to 9 May 1865] and died in Vicksburg, Mississippi. They lived in a very rural area, and mostly only saw other families at church on Sundays. By the time Solice finished the sixth grade, his father had died, so to help his mother with finances, he went to work for a family friend in Many, Louisiana around the age of 16. He and his half-sister helped with the raising and slaughter of cattle, and he also helped in the supermarket supplied with this cattle. His sister lived in West Monroe, and Solice eventually joined her there and worked for the Monroe News Star newspaper which still exists today. He was drafted in July 1945 at 18 years old. He did not finish high school, as he had been working to support his family. He completed his education while in the Army. Solice's mother was very protective and they were very close. He was 14 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. They only had a battery-operated radio. Their rural community was very closed off, new people rarely arrived. He spent most of his time with his mother and sister.

Leroy "Lee" Solice completed boot camp at Camp Chaffee, Arkansas after one night at Fort Humbug [Annotator's Note: in Shreveport, Louisiana]. Growing up, Solice's father was a strict disciplinarian, so when he went into the service he knew how to follow commands. He was rated expert rifleman. He only weighed 130 pounds during boot camp. He was then shipped to Camp Crowder, Missouri which trained for the Medical and Signal Corps. Solice was being trained to be a Medical Aidman when the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] were dropped. He knew he could not go back home because there was nothing there for him, so he enlisted. The medical training did not suit him, so he requested to join the Quartermaster Corps. He did so in Fort Warren, Wyoming and stayed there until March 1946 when he got to visit home for the first time since joining the service. He had been assigned to the 53rd Quartermaster Base Depot in Nuremberg, Germany which he reached via ship docking first in Le Havre, France where there were tent cities [Annotator's Note: "cigarette camps" which were American transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands] name Camp Lucky Strike and Camp Philip Morris for example. Solice then took a train to Bamberg [Annotator’s Note: Bamberg, Germany] on his way to Nuremburg, where the Constabulary [Annotator's Note: The United States Constabulary was a military occupation and security force in the American Zones of West Germany and Austria] was being formed. Servicemen could volunteer if they had not already been assigned. Solice reported to his assignment in Nuremberg, but was then sent to Wurzburg [Annotator's Note: Wurzburg, Germany] where he stayed for two years, distributing fuel to the Air Force, before going to Frankfurt [Annotator's Note: Frankfurt, Germany] and doing similar work. In Wurzburg, there were five men including Solice. They were responsible for security because they were working with aviation fuel. They had ex-German POW's [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] working for them as well, who were given jobs after the war. The Germans and Americans communicated through gestures. They never spoke about their wartime service.

Leroy "Lee" Solice [Annotator's Note: serving with the 53rd Quartermaster Base Depot in Nuremberg, Germany in 1946, then worked detachments in Wurzburg and Frankfurt, Germany] saw German towns and cities that were completely destroyed during the war. Rubble was cleared from the streets and was several feet high on either side. Many of the Germans were living in tunnels they had dug from their basements. He felt pity for the German citizens, who had nothing to do with the war. Solice was not with his direct unit, but on detachment assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division, responsible for their rations, and would eat with them in their mess hall. There were German women from Saarbrucken [Annotator's Note: Saarbrucken, Germany] who worked cleaning the mess halls. One day while in town, Solice was approached by a German who showed him a .32 [Annotator's Note: .32 caliber] revolver and offered to trade it for a carton of cigarettes, which Solice did. The next time he went to town, he came into contact with the Constabulary [Annotator's Note: The United States Constabulary was a military occupation and security force in the American Zones of West Germany and Austria], which was basically the police force as the Germans did not have their own after the war. They frisked Solice down, perhaps because of the pistol. He was transferred to Frankfurt, on the Main River, responsible for the fuel in the area and supervising the German workers, many ex-POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war]. The 53rd Quartermaster Depot was then changed to the 56th Quartermaster Depot [Annotator's Note: 56th Quartermaster Base Depot] in Giesen [Annotator’s Note: Giesen, Germany], so Solice had to be sent to Giesen in preparation for his return to the United States. Once in Giesen, he had to have his appendix removed and was in the hospital for 30 days. The Berlin Airlift [Annotator's Note: Allied military operation which delivered food and other supplies to the people of West Berlin between 24 June 1948 and 12 May 1949] was in progress at this time, and the supplies dropped in Berlin came from Giesen. Solice returned to the States and reenlisted and went right back to Germany. He was at Fort Leavenworth [Annotator's Note: Fort Leavenworth, Kansas] around Christmastime, and decided to go home without a pass. He was stopped by Military Police on the train and sent right back to Leavenworth. He was never court martialed, but had to make up for the two last days when he retired. He met a girl at the USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations, Inc.] in Kansas City, Missouri and they wrote to each other for three years while he was in Germany. He did not want to get married, and thought reenlisting was a good way to get out of the relationship. [Annotator’s Note: Solice laughs.] He later met her son and they are friends.

Leroy "Lee" Solice decided to reenlist because he did not have other options, and he enjoyed his time in the Army. He spent most of his Army career in Germany. He returned to the United States from Giesen [Annotator's Note: Giesen, Germany, where Solice had been reassigned to the 56th Quartermaster Base Depot for discharge] in 1948. Around Christmas 1949, he returned to Germany on a ship that arrived in Bremerhaven [Annotator's Note: Bremerhaven, Germany]. For this second tour, he was attached to the 6th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Straubing [Annotator's Note: Straubing, Germany]. He married on 22 December 1951 while he was in there, and he and his wife returned to the United States in 1952. He was then assigned to the 718th Transportation Truck Company at Fort Bliss, Texas and remained there for four years. He participated in desert maneuvers in the Mojave Desert out of Camp Irving, California, and was then shipped to Fort Ord, California, and finally back to Germany in 1955 where he was stationed in Bad Kreuznach, assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Armored Division. His MOS [Annotator's Note: Military Occupational Specialty] was changed before he arrived, he became a tank section leader for the General of the 2nd Armored Division. He came back to the United States, and for his final tour in Germany was assigned to the 3rd Armored Division, 12th Cav [Annotator’s Note: 12th Cavalry Regiment] in Budingen. Solice finally retired from the Army in May 1967 with the rank of Sergeant First Class, E-7 [Annotator's Note: his military pay grade]. He retired from Fort Lee, Virginia where he owned a home. After retirement, there was a job opening as an ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officers Training Corps] instructor at Captain Shreve in Shreveport [Annotator's Note: Captain Shreve High School in Shreveport, Louisiana], for which a combat MOS and being on active duty had previously been required. However, this changed and retirees replaced the active duty men who were sent back into the service. Solice interviewed and was hired as the ROTC instructor at Fair Park High School [Annotator's Note: in Shreveport, Louisiana] and worked there for six years. A new school, Green Oaks High School, was built and Solice volunteered to take the position there. He retired from Green Oaks in 1983.

Leroy "Lee" Solice [Annotator's Note: served four tours with the Army in Germany between 1946 and his retirement in 1967, was an ROTC instructor in Shreveport, Louisiana until retirement in 1983] had married a German woman [Annotator's Note: in December 1951 while serving in Straubing, Germany], so they would go back to visit every other year to see her family. In the late 1970s, there was a large housing unit up for sale in Germany, and Solice and his brother purchased it. He lived there and manged the building for two years, until his wife became homesick for their daughters and they moved back to the United States. He continued managing the building from the United States. Solice was too young to fight in World War 2 [Annotator's Note: having been drafted at age 18 in July 1945 shortly before the war ended], but he was preparing to go. He was in Germany on a rifle range when the war started in Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953], and was never sent to Korea. When Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975] started, he was preparing to retire. It was unusual to serve 22 years, during three wars, and to not have seen any of them. Modern America is not aware of the destruction that war can cause. Solice is afraid that the United States may not be able to maintain its allies, which is necessary to avoid war. Younger generations must learn about World War 2 to learn to avoid another.