Lee, Robert M. (Robert Merrill), 1909-2003

A graduate of West Point, Robert M. Lee received his wings in 1932 and was one of the Air Corps pilots flying the treacherous airmail route in 1934. As a Captain, Lee attended the Air Corps Tactical School and, in 1941, he became chief of corps aviation. With World War II underway, Lee was assigned to the Ninth Air Force in France, serving as deputy commander for operations under Hoyt S. Vandenberg, assisting in the defeat of Germany in four major campaigns. In January 1946, Lee returned to the United States and became the first chief of staff of the Tactical Air Command (TAC). General Lee then took command of the Air Task Group at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, on an assignment that ended with the atomic bomb test at Eniwetok in 1951. He spent the 1950s commanding various Tactical Air Force units in Europe and Korea and by 1961 was back in the United States as vice-commander of the Air Defense Command. From that position, he became the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, in 1963. General Robert Merrill Lee died in 2003.

Air Force officer.