Lacy served a total of six years eight months and 25 days but only the information about his reenlistment has survived. During his first enlistment he served with the 1937th Engineer Aviation Battalion. We know he was present on the island of Leyte during the Liberation of the Philipines. A local paper published this story with a cropped version of his photo on this memorial page.

"Sgt. Lacy M. Lester and Cpl. Carlyle Snead both of Washington County were with an aviation engineer outfit that landed in the Philipines with the advance echelon of Fifth Air Force headquarters two days after the invasion began, according to advice from the Fifth Air Force in the Philipines. Sgt. Lester's wife and twin daughters live at Clinchburg and Cpl. Snead's wife lives at Mint Spring. Cpl. Snead a carpenter has been in service three years and overseas 17 months; Sgt. Lester has been in the army 28 months and overseas 18 months.

The War Department has issued the following information on the incident in which the two participated: "Jap Bombers and strafers kept their outfit virtually pinned to the beach for more than a week. A tropical typhoon further periled the men when 80 m.p.h. winds and torrential rains toppled coconut trees. Snead and Lester braved repeated attacks to help lay steel mat on the captured Tacloban airstrip to provide a base for army and navy fighters covering General Douglas MacArthur's liberation forces. When this emergency subsided, the engineer outfit fixed up buildings and installed utilities for the Air Force headquarters in a shelled settlement"

Lacy M Lester