A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, with the class of 1909, Lee assisted with various domestic engineering navigation projects as well as in the Panama Canal Zone, Guam and the Philippines.

As World War II began, Lee received a promotion to brigadier general and command of the Pacific coast embarkation zones, then of the 2d Infantry Division.

The Services of Supply were merged with the European Theater of Operations, United States Army to form ComZ, which supported the advance across France and the Allied Invasion of Germany.

[2] His high school success enabled him to compete in 1904 for a 1905 appointment to the United States Military Academy from Representative Charles Frederick Scott without having to take the qualifying exam.

[7] On 18 February 1918, Lee departed for France, where he studied at the Army General Staff College of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) at Langres from 13 March to 30 May.

In the preparations for the drive on the St. Mihiel salient in September, and for the Argonne-Meuse offensive in October, 1918, he had charge of the detailed arrangements for and the subsequent execution of the operations of the 89th Division.

[17] He was responsible for updating all Pacific ports for wartime, engineering the changes needed to transfer materiel and troops more efficiently from rail to ship.

However, he was warned by the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General George C. Marshall, that his tenure might be brief, and might soon be given another assignment, so he should select a deputy and train him to take over.

Lee was concerned about the performance of the divisional artillery, and arranged for it to receive additional training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, which was where he was when he heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II.

[20] Lee arrived in Washington, DC, on 5 May 1942, where he attended two weeks' of conferences about Bolero and the form of organization for the ETO SOS that Marshall and Somervell had in mind.

Somervell and Lee conducted a whirlwind inspection tour of US depots and bases in England on a special train belonging to General Sir Bernard Paget, the British Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces.

General Lee set a grueling pace on his inspection trips, and it was rare indeed when a meal was served on the train during daylight hours, for most runs were made at night.

Brigadier General Claude N. Thiele, Lee's chief of administrative services, suggested Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire, about 90 miles (140 km) west of London.

By the end of June 1942, there were 54,845 US troops in the UK, but a series of defeats in North Africa and on the Russian front, along with heavy losses from submarine attacks, convinced the British Chiefs of Staff that Sledgehammer would not be feasible.

[34] Lee was initially optimistic that he could turn the situation around,[36] but by September, there was no option but to request that USASOS re-ship stores that had already been despatched but could not be located if Torch was to be mounted on time.

[40] He visited North Africa in January 1943 after taking a course as an air gunner so he would not be a useless passenger of the aircraft, and spoke to Patton and General Sir Bernard Montgomery about their supply situation.

Before he could do so, Andrews was killed in a plane crash in Iceland on 3 May,[43][45] and was succeeded by Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers,[45] who agreed to abolish the theater G-4 and transfer its functions to Lee.

A complicating factor was the creation of the First United States Army Group under Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley, who sought to place logistical functions under his command.

Lee improvised with the road transport, the Red Ball Express, but logistic support of the armies depended on the repair of the railroad system, and the development of ports.

The original plans to use ports in Brittany were abandoned in favor of Marseilles in the south, and Le Havre and Antwerp, which were captured by the British 21st Army Group.

Noting that casualties among newly arrived reinforcements greatly exceeded those among veterans, Lee tried to humanize the replacement depots, and suggested changing the name so that they sounded less like spare parts.

Walter Bedell Smith disagreed with Lee's plan, writing to Eisenhower: Two years ago I would have considered the marked statement the most dangerous thing that I had ever seen in regard to Negro relations.

[17] In addition, Lee was made an honorary member of the French Foreign Legion, the II Polish Corps, the Italian Bersaglieri and several Alpini Regiments.

[81] Official historian Roland G. Ruppenthal wrote: General Lee continued to be a controversial personality throughout the history of the theater, owing in part to the anomalous position which he held.

Heavy on ceremony, somewhat forbidding in manner and appearance, and occasionally tactless in exercising authority which he regarded to be within the province of the SOS, General Lee often aroused suspicions and created opposition where support might have been forthcoming.

Those who did knew him to be kindly, unselfish, modest, extremely religious, and a man of simple tastes, however much this seemed to be contradicted by the picture of ostentation presented by the living arrangements of his staff and by his use of a special train for his comings and goings in the United Kingdom.

[29]Stephen Ambrose wrote in Citizen Soldiers:The biggest jerk in ETO was Lt. Gen. John C. H. Lee (USMA 1909), commander of Services of Supply (SOS).

He hated waste; once he was walking through a mess hall, reached into the garbage barrel, pulled out a half-eaten loaf of bread, started chomping on it, and gave the cooks hell for throwing away perfectly good food.

Eisenhower had frequently expressed his view that no major headquarters should be located near the temptations of a large city, and had specifically reserved the hotels in Paris for the use of combat troops on leave.

It got worse, With 29,000 SOS troops in Pans, the great majority of them involved in some way in the flow of supplies from the beaches and ports to the front, and taking into account what Paris had to sell from wine and girls to jewels and perfumes, a black market on a grand scale sprang up.