Bill Lee, No.3 Commando

This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 05/11/2016 11:27:34

"Were you ever in the RAF"

Now I'm used to receiving fairly strange emails on the account I use solely for Commando stuff, but this had to be the shortest and, possibly, the oddest...
I looked at the sender's name - Chris Lee.
Well, I had been in the RAF (for 27 years) and, at the age of 16, I had joined up with a guy called Chris Lee, who, I remembered, came from Rochdale.
We'd served together on many RAF stations during our careers and had become good friends. We still kept in contact, albeit usually through a mutual mate.
So why would my friend Chris suddenly contact me via the CVA?
Ever cautious against spammers and other malicious emails, I replied with an equally succinct and cryptic message, "Does 319 mean anything to you"
Only the Chris Lee I joined up with would associate that number with our RAF Apprentice Entry number.

And, so it was, 45 years after first meeting, that Chris and I both learned that both our fathers had been in The Commandos.

Just as so many of us have experienced with our own fathers, TSM Bill Lee didn't speak much about his experiences as a commando and it wasn't until after Bill?s death, and later in his own life, that Chris and his cousin, John Mainwaring, had decided to find out more about Bill's time in The Commandos.

And then they discovered The CVA...

Please see the attached article.

The wonders of the internet.........

I wondered if this is Bill (2nd from left) among the instructors at Achnacarry. I noticed him in the recent link to the U.S.Rangers archive?

Hi Guy,
I sent the photo to Bill's son, Chris, and judging by his initial reaction, yes it is! :D

Many thanks for this

Nick