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Veteran Profiles
Otis Edward Lee, Sr.

Otis Edward Lee, Sr.

Birth Year: 1918

Branch: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Highest Rank: Staff Sergeant

Service Dates: 5/1941-10/1945

Unit of Service: 95th Engineer Regiment

Location of Service: Alaska, Europe

Medals: American Defense Medal, American Service Medal; Good Conduct Medal; European African Middle Eastern Service Medal; WWII Victory Medal

Biography

Otis Edward LeeRacial prejudice in the segregated army during World War II didn't undermine the patriotism of Baltimore native Otis Lee Jr.

"We were segregated, but proud," he says. "Because whatever we were doing, we were doing for our country. I was a very proud dude to be fighting for my country."

Before fighting, however, he and 3,600 other black soldiers were put to work building the 1,500 mile Alaska highway.

"It was a matter of having a bunch of dumb black soldiers, not qualified, don't know how to do anything and nothing for them to do,” he complains. "So put them up there and let them cut a trail."

But they finished the trail in record time, and Lee finally saw action in the Battle of the Bulge.
"I stepped over so many dead soldiers," he says. "Great, big, young, healthy men, all dressed up, dead."

His road-building and fighting, though, still make him proud. "Somebody had to do it to prove to the world that they were wrong and we were not all dumb," says Lee. "And that we loved this country."