Willis Augustus Lee Willis Augustus " Ching " Lee , Jr . ( May 11 , 1888 – August 25 , 1945 ) was a Vice Admiral of the United States Navy during World War II . Lee commanded the American ships during the second night of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal ( November 14 – 15 , 1942 ) and turned back a Japanese invasion force headed for the island . The victory ended Japanese attempts to reinforce their troops on Guadalcanal , and thus marked a turning point in both the Guadalcanal Campaign and the Pacific War itself . Lee was also a skilled sport shooter , and won 7 medals in the 1920 Olympics shooting events ( including five gold medals ) , tied with teammate Lloyd Spooner for the most anyone had ever received in a single games . Their record stood for 60 years . He was the most successful athlete at the 1920 Olympics . Early life through World War II . Willis Lee , a distant relative of Confederate General Robert E . Lee , was born in the rural town of Natlee in Owen County , Kentucky , on May 11 , 1888 . The son of Judge Willis Augustus Lee and Susan Arnold , he was known as " Mose " Lee to family and friends . He entered the U . S . Naval Academy in 1904 . While at the Naval academy , his Chinese - sounding last name , compounded by his fondness for the Far East earned him the nickname " Ching " Lee . Following graduation , Lee joined the academy ' s rifle team twice . He was assigned to the battleship from October 1908 to May 1909 , before returning to the naval academy and re - joining the rifle team . From November 1909 until May 1910 , Lee served aboard the protected cruiser , and then transferred to the gunboat . Upon being detached back to the United States , Lee re - joined the Academy shooting team a third time . In July 1913 , Lee re - joined the " Idaho " , and later transferred to the battleship to participate in the occupation of Veracruz . During World War I , Lee served on the destroyers and . 1920 Olympics . Lee participated in 14 events at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp . He won 7 medals ( 5 gold , 1 silver , and one bronze ) , all in team events . His teammates for the various events were Dennis Fenton , Lawrence Nuesslein , Arthur Rothrock , Oliver Schriver , Morris Fisher , Carl Osburn , Lloyd Spooner , and Joseph Jackson . Lee and Spooner ended the 1920 Olympics with 7 medals each , the most anyone had ever received in a single games . It would not be until Alexander Dityatin in the 1980 games that anyone would beat that record . ( Boris Shakhlin was the next person to reach 7 , in 1960 ) Interwar Years . Lee attended the Naval War College in the late 1920s , and was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1936 . During the 1930s and early 1940s , Lee was several times assigned to the Fleet Training Division , commanded the light cruiser , and served on the staff of Commander , Cruisers , Battle Force . In early 1942 , following his promotion to the rank of Rear Admiral , Lee became Assistant Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief , U . S . Fleet . World War II . Lee ' s specialty in life was gunnery . At the age of 19 in 1907 " he became the only American to win both the US National High Power Rifle and Pistol championships in the same year . " In 1914 during the Vera Cruz campaign in Mexico he drew the fire of three enemy snipers , thereby exposing their positions and then shot them at long range . He understood the powerful guns of a battleship as an extension of the law of ballistics and adapted his expertise to the new age of technology . When Admiral Lee engaged IJN Admiral Kondo ' s battleship Kirishima on the evening of 14 November 1942 in the waters off Guadalcanal , he became naval history ' s first battleship commander to conduct a " gunfight " primarily by radar remote control . Naval Battle of Guadalcanal . In August 1942 , Rear Admiral Lee was sent to the Pacific to command Battleship Division Six , consisting of the battleships and . Flying his flag in the " Washington " , Lee engaged an IJN surface fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondō during the second night of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on the night of 14 – 15 November 1942 . While riding in the battleship " Washington " , which served as his flagship during this sea - fight , Lee ' s battleship decisively gunned the IJN battleship " Kirishima " into a wreck , resulting in her scuttling shortly afterwards . With 300 Imperial sailors still entombed within her hull , she slid into Ironbottom Sound , leaving Admiral Lee ' s flagship " Washington " America ' s only battleship during World War II to sink an enemy battleship in a " one on one " gunfight . Lee , who " knew more about radar than the radar operators " , used the SG radar installed aboard the " Washington " to skillfully maneuver his ships during the night . To Willis Lee went many accolades . " Audacious planning and execution " marked his operations , commented Halsey . . . Unlike Callaghan , Lee never allowed the action to degenerate into a nautical brawl , because he formulated a workable plan and adhered to it , even after every ship in his task force except " Washington " was sunk or forced to retire . Lee was never more incisive than in his own evaluation of his success : " We realized then and it should not be forgotten now , that our entire superiority was due almost entirely to our possession of radar . Certainly we have no edge on the Japs in experience , skill , training , or performance of personnel . Lee was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions at the battle . After Guadalcanal . Lee was promoted to Vice Admiral in 1944 and placed in charge of the Pacific Fleet ' s fast battleship s , as Commander , Battleships , Pacific Fleet ( ComBatPac ) . In May 1945 , he was sent to the Atlantic to command a special unit researching defenses against the threat of Japanese kamikaze planes . While serving in that position on 25 August 1945 , Vice Admiral Willis A . Lee died suddenly after suffering a heart attack , just eight days prior to the Surrender of Japan . Family . Willis Lee Jr . was a distant relative of Gen . Robert E . Lee and possibly descended from the third Attorney General of the United States , Charles Lee . He married Mabelle Allen Elspeth ( 1894 – 1949 ) on July 14 , 1919 . They had no children . Willis ' father , Judge Willis Augustus Lee Sr . , was one of fourteen children of Nathaniel Wiley Lee ( aka Nat Lee , founder of Natlee ) and Frances Abbott , of Owen County , Kentucky . His great - grandparents were early Kentucky settlers , Joseph R . Lee and Mary Wiley . His grandfather Nathaniel W . Lee operated a distillery at his namesake village of Natlee . In 1893 , Nat Lee ' s sour mash whiskey was taken to the Chicago World ' s Fair where it won the Gold Medal over 5000 other entries . Namesakes . The was named for him .