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Cpl Lee B. Eastman enlisted in Fort Jackson Columbia, South Carolina on 17 November 1942.
Original member of the Regimental Demolition Platoon.
Captain Pease sent Staff Sergeant William Bullock, the operations sergeant, out to find cut off groups and individual paratroopers who were lost. With one squad of the Regimental Demolition Platoon, Staff Sergeant John Kaslikowski’s machine gun squad and the men from company headquarters they wouldn’t be able to hold out very long against the Germans. Bullock recalled of this mission:
“Little groups of soldiers were walking all over town. I stepped over at least 50 dead men – only two were GI’s. I came to a mangled pile of torn up Jerry corpses and as I was stepping over them I heard a cool voice ask, “Is that a GI?” Two demolition men in the second story of a house had been up there since dark, letting small groups pass and dropping gammon grenades on every large bunch of Krauts that came within their range. We pulled back to the command post.”[1]

[1] This account is taken from Saga of the All American by W. Forrest “Buck” Dawson, the first 82nd Airborne Division book, published in 1946.