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<p><em>Charles E. Lea</em>, “Chuck” to his friends, was a born leader. During his First Class year, he was a cadet company commander and chairman of the Cadet Honor Committee. In addition, he was a true scholar, wearing stars on his collar all three eligible years.</p>
<p>Chuck had the academic advantage of having attended college for a year before entering the Academy; however, it is certain that he would have been a Star Man anyway. His <em>Howitzer</em> profile said, “He was a natural hive.” He selected Russian as his foreign language because he was convinced that we would one day meet their army on the field of battle, eventually defeat them, and then do as we had done with Germany: stay to help our former enemy recover from the ravages of war. But I suspect that he also wanted to meet the challenge of selecting the most difficult of the five languages offered. As the Howitzer noted, “His favorite pastime was hard work.”</p>
<p>However, if there had been a fifth year at West Point, he would not have been wearing those stars. During his First Class year, academics took a back seat to his responsibilities as chairman of the Cadet Honor Committee and company commander of K-2. Moreover, academics could not compete with Lola Bowyer, his high school sweetheart whom he had dated throughout his time at the Academy and who spent that final year living in Highland Falls, NY. Regardless, Chuck graduated as a distinguished cadet, and a few weeks later he and Lola were married.</p>
<p>Chuck was commissioned in Armor. After completing Armor Officer Basic Course and Airborne School, he spent three years in Germany with the 3rd Armored Division, serving at company, brigade, and division level. In 1961, he changed his career path and entered the University of Missouri School of Medicine under the Army’s excess leave program. During the next four years, he was effectively unemployed and drawing very little pay from the Army. He did go on active duty whenever possible, serving at the nearest Army hospital during breaks from school, such as holidays and summer vacations.</p>
<p>In 1965, he interned at Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Aurora, CO. Chuck turned down his choice of assignment from the Medical Corps, requesting instead an assignment to Vietnam, where he served as a medical company commander and brigade surgeon in the 101st Airborne Division (1966-67). While there, he was asked to remove a bullet from an elephant shot in the crossfires. A photograph of Dr. Lea operating on the elephant was published on the front page of the Army Times newspaper.</p>
<p>Widely regarded as a humble servant, Dr. Lea was awarded the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, the Soldier’s Medal, four Air Medals, the Army Commendation Medal, the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, and the Combat Medical Badge for his service. A reviewing officer noted, “Of all the surgeons I have known in the Army…Lea is one of two that I feel has the potential to someday be the Surgeon General of the Army.”</p>
<p>Following his combat tour in 1967, he was assigned to Brooke Army Medical Center and then to the staff and faculty of the Army’s Medical Field Service School at Fort Sam in San Antonio, TX. In 1968 he became the chief of staff of the Army Community Hospital at Fort Leonard Wood, MO.</p>
<p>In 1970, as a lieutenant colonel, Chuck resigned his Army commission and opened a private practice in Stillwater, OK. He served as chief of staff at the new Stillwater Medical Center. In 1974, Lola’s sudden death left him a single father of three. In 1976, he married Juna “Kay” Eagon, with whom he added three more children to the Lea family.</p>
<p>In 1987, after a serious fire in the building that included his practice, Chuck and Kay decided it was time to return to his Missouri roots. He opened a practice in the small town of Lexington, MO, where he touched the lives of the entire town until his death in 2008.</p>
<p>Chuck Lea was honest to a fault. He was painfully candid about himself and his minor shortcomings. He once remarked that a cobbler from Russia came to work in Lexington. Chuck went to see him and started speaking to him in Russian, confident that the old man would be impressed and happy to find a kindred spirit in this foreign land. The response he got, however, was, “Doctor Lea, what language are you speaking?”</p>
<p>As a country doctor, he turned no one away. If they couldn’t pay, he would take barter. Since many of his patients were farmers, he seldom had to buy groceries. If they had nothing to barter, he settled for whatever little cash they could offer.</p>
<p>Chuck was a heavy smoker for most of his life, and while he lived to the ripe old age of 73, he would have had many more years to live had he avoided nicotine. On his death bed, he told his daughter that he wanted her to tell everyone at his memorial service that they should not smoke. His memorial service was attended by practically the entire population of Lexington. It was held in a large church, with every seat filled and the walls lined with many friends and neighbors, standing two deep, throughout the ceremony. He was survived by his loving wife Kay Lea; six children: DeJean Dace, George Lea, Elisabeth Brantley, Darren Lea, Nikki Emison, and Scott Lea; and 15 grandchildren. Chuck Lea was a friend to everyone and an enemy to none—simply a very special person.</p>
<p><em>— Classmates</em></p>
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