Theodore R. Lee was born in August 1922 in Cody, Wyoming. He had poor eyesight as a child and had to wear thick glasses. He was often picked on because of his glasses until he got into high school. He played football and became an all-state athlete. Lee graduated from high school in 1944, and four days later, was in the service. He was sent to Camp Hood, Texas [Annotator's Note: now Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas] for basic training. One of his duties was to kill rattlesnakes. During basic training with the Army, Lee was made a squad leader. When he completed basic training, he was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia where he entered paratrooper training. He had to jump off a 200-foot scaffolding. He did not like being hoisted up by a harness to the top, but once he got up there, he was fine. When they released him, a parachute popped open, and he floated down. There was another training session where he was hung by his shoulders for a long period of time. His feet dangled only inches off the ground. He trained with a mock chute that was attached to a 100-yard rope. He was released and he dangled across this rope and landed in a saw dust pile. He practiced jumping in the Chattahoochee River and then swam to the shoreline. There was a fellow who could not swim and almost drowned. Lee jumped in the river and helped him to the shore. After he completed his training at For Benning, Lee was shipped to Fort Bragg, North Carolina where he joined the 82nd Airborne Division. After one week, he boarded a ship and went overseas to Le Havre, France. The passage across the Atlantic [Annotator's Note: Atlantic Ocean] was rough and long.

After landing at Le Havre [Annotator’s Note: Le Havre, France], Theodore R. Lee was shipped to an airstrip. While in the plane, he hooked up to a wire [Annotator’s Note: an air conditioner comes on in the background at 0:16:28.000] and carried his equipment which included a small machine gun and grenades. His mission was to take a fortified bridge so that the infantry would have passage to the front lines. He thought the German soldiers were very good, and that the bridge was so well-protected that they would not be able to take it. However, the Germans were surprised when Lee and other paratroopers arrived from the air. It took two days, but Lee and his unit [Annotator's Note: 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] were able to take the bridge. After securing the bridge, his unit was relieved to a campsite where they lived in a foxhole. He ate K-rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals] and shot Germans that came near their campsite. Soon, they were given orders to head to Frankfurt, Germany and loaded into a truck. He arrived at the IG Farben [Annotator’s Note: a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate] building. When he went inside, he saw long tables and silverware on the table. German prisoners served the American troops. He then had the honor of becoming part of Eisenhower’s [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] Honor Guard for the space of one year in Heddernheim [Annotator’s Note: Heddernheim, Germany]. There were 40 guards total that kept guard at all hours of the day. He spent most of his time off in the kitchen, eating and writing letters to his family. During this time, the B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] were bombing industrial sites in the surrounding area. Lee hated the German people while he served overseas. He thought they were cruel people for what they had done to the Jewish people.

Theodore R. Lee [Annotator's Note: after serving in combat with 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division] was selected to serve in Eisenhower’s [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] Honor Guard for one year during occupation duty in Heddernheim, Germany. He really enjoyed his duty and felt respected by other military branches. On VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945], his regiment was chosen to march in the parade on the streets of Paris, France. Lee recalled that they traded their K-rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals] with the local population for French bread. [Annotator’s Note: A telephone rings in the background at 0:43:37.000.] The French were very nice to him and often came up him on the street and give him hugs and thanked him.

After landing at Le Havre [Annotator’s Note: Le Havre, France], Theodore R. Lee was shipped to an airstrip to be flown into Normandy [Annotator’s Note: Normandy, France]. He took part in the jump. Lee liked being the third guy to jump out. After the draft pulled him out of the plane, he looked up to make sure his parachute was working properly. He tossed grenades down if he saw groups of Germans on the ground. He also had a Tommy gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun] he used to fire on the Germans while parachuting down. Lee remarked that after the war, he would sometimes have bad dreams that kept him up at night, but he does not have them anymore. [Annotator’s Note: There is a break in the video at 0:54:15.000then a buzzing noise can be heard throughout the rest of this clip.] Lee was very happy when he received orders to go back to the United States. He did not spend any of the money he made while he was overseas. After he was discharged, he chose not to sign up for the Reserves, but used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to complete a degree in English at the University of Wyoming [Annotator's Note: in Laramie, Wyoming], then returned to his old workplace in Cody [Annotator’s Note: Cody, Wyoming] at a Chevrolet dealer. Lee swore that he would not have any association with the German people, but one day he went to get his hair cut and did not realize until later that the barber was German. Lee worked as a highway patrolman and then a parole officer for 35 years. Lee had some difficulty transitioning back to civilian life because he was treated so well as a paratrooper, but when he became a civilian again, he was not treated the same.

Theodore R. Lee grew up with four brothers, and all were in military service during World War 2. His mother did not take it well that all five of her sons were overseas. Lee thought Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] and how the Japanese sneak attacked America, killing many people, was horrible. Lee was working at a service station when he first heard the news about the attack. Right outside his hometown of Cody [Annotator’s Note: Cody, Wyoming], the government built the Heart Mountain internment camp [Annotator’s Note: Heart Mountain War Relocation Center]. Lee recalled that many of the civilians and ranchers were not happy with the complex because the government was using all the available building supplies in the area to build it up. They also did not like that the “enemy” was near them. His parents held animosity towards the Japanese after the war. Lee remembered that the government put out propaganda signs to citizens to not talk about the war to Japanese.

Theodore R. Lee’s most memorable experience of World War 2 was the camaraderie among his fellow paratroopers [Annotator's Note: Lee had served in combat in Europe with 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division]. He fought in World War 2 because his four brothers fought. He also had a friend who was a fellow athlete, and they went to the recruiting center together. His friend joined the Marines, but Lee was not accepted because of his bad eyesight. He later joined the Army and took a troop train to basic training. The war changed his life because he was able to travel and see the world. He had never been outside of his hometown of Cody [Annotator’s Note: Cody, Wyoming] until he joined the service. He did not know where Georgia was when he was sent to Fort Benning for paratrooper training. Lee appreciated how FDR [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] built up the military when the war began. He is proud to have served his country and supports any organization that helps veterans. Lee believes that there should be institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because it’s necessary to have that knowledge and keep our country armed. [Annotator’s Note: There is a break in the video at 1:28:31.000 then a buzzing noise can be heard throughout the rest of this clip.] Lee’s father initially worked as a horseman who drove stagecoaches to Yellowstone [Annotator's Note: Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho] full of tourists. The route ran from the Irma Hotel [Annotator's Note: in Cody, Wyoming] all the way out to Old Faithful [Annotator's Note: a cone geyser in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming]. His father met Theodore Roosevelt [Annotator’s Note: Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, Jr.; 26th president of the United States] who asked to drive his team to Yellowstone. Lee’s father became a carpenter, and when Heart Mountain [Annotator’s Note: Heart Mountain War Relocation Center] was established 15 miles outside of Cody, he helped build it like so many Cody residents. He continued working at Heart Mountain as a guard, but quit before the war ended because he held strong animosity towards the Japanese and what they did at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941].