John C . H . Lee John Clifford Hodges Lee ( August 1 , 1887 – August 30 , 1958 ) was a US Army general . He graduated 12th out of 103 graduates from the United States Military Academy in 1909 . He served in World War I , World War II and rose to the rank of lieutenant general . World War I . In World War I , Lee was a colonel and chief of staff , 89th Infantry Division , earning a Distinguished Service Medal and the Silver Star . He also was aide de camp to General Leonard Wood . Between wars . Lee ' s training was as a military engineer . He was treasurer of the Society of American Military Engineers in 1924 . In 1927 the previous winter ' s rains were so great , the Mississippi River ' s tributaries forced great quantities of water into the river system causing great flooding in Mississippi and New Orleans . Lee was the army district engineer at Vicksburg . He wired a message to the Chief of Engineers " Levee broke . . . crevasse will overflow entire Mississippi Delta . " Between 1934 to 1938 , as a lieutenant colonel , he was commander of the Philadelphia District , US Army Corps of Engineers . From 1940 to 1941 he was commandant of the Fort Mason California Port of Embarkation . He was promoted to brigadier general in 1940 . World War II , Services of Supply ( SOS ) . General Lee was commanding officer of the 2nd Infantry Division from November 1941 until the reorganization of the US Army in May 1942 . He was promoted to major general in May 1942 , and lieutenant general in February 1944 . In May 1942 , Lee was put in charge of SHAEF ' s Services of Supply ( SOS ) . This became the Communications Zone , or COMZ , after the invasion . This operation ran from Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , England . SOS became TSFET after the invasion : Theater Service Forces , European Theater . He was considered a martinet by General Omar Bradley and due to the impression that he had a high opinion of himself and strong religious fervor , General Dwight D . Eisenhower compared him to Oliver Cromwell he was often called " Jesus Christ Himself " based on his initials , J . C . H . He also became known as General John " Court House " Lee . This was because all Service Forces in theater , including the judicial services , fell under the umbrella of Lee ' s command . The Services of Supply headquarters was consolidated with headquarters , European Theater of Operations , United States Army ( ETOUSA ) , of which General Eisenhower was Supreme Commander . Besides his role as commanding general of Services of Supply , Lee was also the deputy theater commander for supply and administration , which was co - located with the ETOUSA . For the North African campaign , 50 , 000 tons of cargo was needed in November 1942 . The Service of Supply organization was responsible to ship between 700 , 000 and 1 , 000 , 000 separate categories of supplies for the advancing armies into France . For example , one regiment of troops could need up to 50 different types of ammunition . According to the Center of Military History , the stockpile for invasion — over and above basic loads and equipment — was 2 , 500 , 000 tons . All told , 37 , 000 , 000 tons of materiel was transferred from the US and Canada to the UK prior to the Normandy invasion , all of which was organized and staged by Lee ' s SOS . Once beach - harbors , and then hard ports , were established in France , a total of 41 , 000 , 000 tons were delivered from the UK or directly from North America to feed , clothe , house , and arm the Allied armies as they advanced on and destroyed the Third Reich . In January 1944 Lee was made deputy commander of US Forces in the ETO , second in command to Eisenhower as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe . He was promoted to lieutenant general in February 1944 . Lee ' s challenge to army policy . Although he may have suffered a bad reputation as a strict disciplinarian , he was the first to challenge the army segregation policy . Lee offered all physically fit African - American soldiers within the Services of Supply Corps , providing their jobs could be filled by limited - duty personnel , could be allowed to volunteer for infantry duty and be placed in otherwise white units , without regard to a quota but on an as - needed basis . Many African - Americans in the US military were in service organizations and not allowed to fight . Lee wrote : " . . . It is planned to assign you without regard to color or race to the units where assistance is most needed , and give you the opportunity of fighting shoulder to shoulder to bring about victory . . . Your relatives and friends everywhere have been urging that you be granted this privilege . . . " Eisenhower ' s chief of staff , Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith , disagreed with Lee ' s plan and his opinion was that a one - for - one replacement should not be done , only replacements as full platoons of Black soldiers . As a result of the directive 2 , 253 volunteers were organized into thirty - seven rifle platoons and sent to the front , to be distributed as needed to companies . German prisoners . Late in World War II , Lee and Omar Bradley tried to release significant numbers of German prisoners of war but a SHAEF order signed by Eisenhower countermanded them on 15 May 1945 . Post war career . Lee continued in the military and served as commander of the Mediterranean Theater of Operations in post - War Europe . There was some controversy to his command , when in August 1947 newspaper columnist Robert C . Ruark claimed that General Lee misused enlisted men under his command in occupied Italy . Said Ruark " I am going to blow a loud whistle on Lieutenant General John C . H . Lee " . Some evidence suggests Ruark was unhappy because a journalist ' s train had left him behind and Lee would not provide transportation for him . Lee requested that his command be thoroughly investigated by Army Inspector General ' s Office . He and his command were completely exonerated . Lee asked to retire from the army in February 1947 and he retired late in 1947 , with over 39 years in active service . Lee was an Episcopalian and kept a Bible with him at all times . In retirement he planned to work as a layman in his church . He spent the last 11 years of his life as the executive secretary of the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew , which is the lay - organization of the Episcopal Church . He declined all post - war invitations to serve as a corporate board executive , preferring to devote his life to service . Lee died in 1958 . He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery beside his first wife , Sarah Row Lee , who was killed in an automobile accident in 1939 . They had one child , John C . H . Lee Jr . , born in her hometown of Wheeling , West Virginia , 12 July 1918 . Family . John C . H . Lee Jr . ( son of the subject of this article ) also attended the US Military Academy , and was graduated with the Class of 1941 . He landed on Omaha Beach on D - Day with V Corps engineers , earning the Silver Star that day , and finished the war with the 82nd Airborne , earning another Silver Star , the Bronze Star , and a peacetime Distinguished Service Medal . He saw action in Korea , and had an active army - engineer career in Germany and all over the US through the 1950s and 1960s . He retired from the army at the rank of full colonel in 1970 in Cincinnati , Ohio , where he closed his career as director of the Office of Appalachian Studies . This section of the Ohio River Division of the Corps was tasked with completing a water - resources survey , as part of the Johnson Administration ' s War on Poverty . He died in 1975 , and is buried with his wife , Patricia Schappert Lee , in her hometown of Wilkes - Barre , Pennsylvania . His surviving family resides in Cincinnati .