Lee R. Peters was adopted by the Peters family at an age of two and a half. His birth name was actually Oscar Leander Hershey's, although he is not related to the Hershey's Chocolate Company. As a little boy, Lee grew up in Hayward, Wisconsin with his two older brothers, Tom and David. All three brothers did the largest paper route in that town together, and Lee was also in the Cub Scouts. Lee also loved farming, and spent hours helping the farmers. His other love was flying. He always loved to fly, and always wanted to be a pilot of an airplane. He probably never would have guessed that he would end up being a pilot for the U.S. Army.

After his junior year in High School, Lee's family moved to Marshfield. He attended Marshfield Senior High School, but they were so full of students, that they could only give him one class in the morning. Since Lee had the rest of the day off, he got a job working at Ericson's Gas Station because he also loved to work on cars. He liked to run, and he ran in track during High School. He also took flying lessons completely without his parents knowing of it. His mom thought that he was just getting up early to work at the gas station but he was actually taking flying lessons! He would sometimes go to the the local airport and copilot the flights from Marshfield down to Chicago and back.

Lee moved to Wisconsin Rapids and went to Mid State Technical College. After finishing his studies at Mid State, he enlisted in the Army in 1969. He was put through boot camp and scored a one hundred percent on the physical fitness test. This had only happened once in the previous fifteen years, so the commander gave him breakfast in bed. Once he was through boot camp, he was transferred to the 6th Wing where he trained as a pilot and as a warrant Officer. The one thing his mom didn't want him to do in the 6th Wing was to fly a helicopter, but that was mostly what he was trained for. After training, Lee was moved to Vietnam.

When he was moved to Vietnam, because of the dense jungles he mainly flew helicopters. He didn't speak much about being a soldier, or what it was like but it probably wasn't much fun. He never did marry, but he was planning on marrying his girlfriend when he got home from the war.

On July 31st, 1970 Lee was on a reconnaissance mission when his plane crashed unexpectedly, and both Lee and another person died. No one is quite sure why the plane crashed, but it might have been sabotage.

In total, Lee got 6 medals. The first one is the Bronze Star Medal. This one was awarded for Meritorious Achievement, and Valor. The next one is the Distinguished Flying Cross Medal, which is awarded for heroism and for extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight. He also got two medals from the Republic of Vietnam. The next medal awarded to Lee was the National Defense Medal. This one is awarded for military service during periods of national emergency. The last medal is the Flying Air Medal which was given to him for heroism not involving actual conflict with an enemy. Lee R. Peters remains were found, and he is now buried in Marshfield, WI. He was a very brave man, and served our country well. He deserves to be remembered for what he did to help our country.

Written by:

Tom Peterson

East Junior High School