Born in Baltimore, Maryland Lee Earle Reisenweber entered the United States Marine Corps, July 6^th, 1967 at Springfield, MA.  He attended high school for three years at The Severn School, Servena Park, MD.  He spent his senior year at The Choate School, Wallingford. CT, graduating in 1965.  Before enlisting in the Marine Corps, Lee attended Windham College in Vermont and Harvard College, Cambridge, MA for2 years.  Lee said he took his final year’s “dorm money” and went skylarking to Spain.  When the money was gone, he found himself stuck in Morocco, and managed to wangle a ticket home.  Rather than an MBA, he would rather be a PFC - or Corporal.

Lee first obtained an Amateur Radio License in 1958 at the age of 12.  By the time he entered the Corps he was a seasoned Morse operator.  Lee’s MOS progressed with rank from Administrative Clerk (0151) to Administrative Manager (0141) and of course a secondary 8981 (Military Affiliated Radio System Radio Operator).  At the time of his release from active duty, September 13, 1971 Lee had also spent time as a 5851, Criminal Investigator.  He was also licensed as a private pilot (Single Engine Land) in October of 1969.  Lee spent his tour with the Marine Corps in Vietnam operating at N0EFB with the 1st Marine Air Wing.

After leaving the Corps, Lee worked in Adult Investigations for the Orange County California Probation Department.  He then became a Demonstration Pilot for Wells Aircraft Sales in Long Beach.  In 1975 he went to work for the Marriott Corporation, working in Front Office Management teams in Newport Beach, CA and New Orleans, LA before joining Merrill Lynch & Co. in 1977 as an account executive. 

In 1978 Lee broke away from the office crowd and was hired as a Certified Sailing Instructor with the Royal Yachting Association at the National Sailing Centre and the Medina Valley Centre both on the Isle of Wight, UK.  He served as a Yacht Master, Sailing Instructor and also captained charters and boat deliveries.  In 1979 he then took a job as a sailing instructor for the Offshore Sailing School, NY at Tortola, British Virgin Islands.   He left Offshore Sailing in 1980 to freelance as a Sailing Yacht Captain delivering boats and sailing charters along the U.S. east coast and the West Indies.  The rest of the 1980’s Lee worked generally as a Yacht and sailing captain, first mate or navigator, with a two year stint  from late 1980 – 1982 as a Marina Manager for a full service shipyard in Freeport, Maine.  In 1984 – 1985 Lee Captained a private yacht making a solo transatlantic crossing of approximately 5300 nautical miles aboard the Nor’Sea 27ft sloop “Kristina” from Gibraltar to Ft Lauderdale FL via Canary Island and Antigua , West Indies.  Racing Loon’s Lace in the 1986 Newport-Bermuda Onion Patch series was also a proud accomplishment.  Lee continued making a living as a sailing Captain into 1996. 

Through his ham and sailing contacts Lee was acquainted with a great many people.  One who became a most valued and trusted friend was Robert M. Denniston, VP2VI, owner of Smugglers Cove Hotel and Resort, Tortola, British Virgin Islands.  Denniston VP2VI and W0DX, was a past president of ARRL, IARU, the British Virgin Islands Radio League and a pioneer of the DXpedition. A mutual close friend said “Denniston did not suffer fools, and in the amateur radio service, preferred the company of radiotelegraph operators; and generally, men of the sea.  His acceptance of Lee Reisenweber as a friend, and the favors they did for one another, were unprecedented for Denniston, a relatively private man.”  Lee was considered one of the “Best of the Best” Morse operators in the amateur world. 

Lee kept up his amateur radio activities everywhere he went, obtaining licenses in many different countries.  DXing and talking with hams all over the world.  An internet bulletin board post in 1995 typifies Lee.  

“Anyone interested in the CQWW-CW from VP2VE, on Anegada Is, BVI. Mini Q's, great Lobster on the best beaches in the most northern island of the West Indies and a unobstructed shot to the entire North Atlantic Ocean. Can't miss!! Give me a jingle. Cheers  es DX....Lee/VP2VE” 

When deadly Hurricane Marilyn struck St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands with Category 2 and near Category 3 winds in September of 1995, Lee was on the scene.  A report from the ARRL News states:

“In just one story, following Hurricane Marilyn, in the US Virgin Islands, by September 15, telephone circuits on the islands had become overloaded, even before the hurricane had arrived, according to Dave Rosen, K2GM. As Marilyn passed over the capital of St. Thomas early on the morning of the 16th, a vital telephone microwave link already had failed.

On the morning of the 16th, Lee Reisenweber, VP2VE/NP2CG, operating from KP2A, the station of John Ackley, sent a vital damage assessment message from the St Thomas Emergency Operations Center to UN Radio Readiness Group net control Ray Crites, K1WW, in Greenville, NC on 20 meters. The traffic was relayed to 4U1UN, the UN headquarters Amateur Radio Station in New York City, from which it was given directly to FEMA. This was some of the first word received by FEMA from the US Virgin Islands describing what had occurred on St Thomas, Rosen said.

At the time, Reisenweber was using generator power and a "rapidly installed" 40 foot piece of wire for an antenna. In addition to traffic later passed by voice, digital modes were used extensively, with message files sent by PACTOR.”

Marilyn was directly responsible for 8 deaths, 5 in St. Thomas, 1 in St. John, 1 in St. Croix and 1 in Culebra (Puerto Rico). Most drowned and were on boats at docks or offshore.  Marilyn caused severe damage to the U.S. Virgin Islands, in particular to St. Thomas. An estimated 80 percent of the homes and businesses on St. Thomas were destroyed and at least 10,000 people were left homeless.  

After Hurricane Marilyn, Lee lived at Smugglers Cove helping out Bob Denniston.  On December 16^th, 1995 Lee was helping a friend offload supplies from the Sky Seal on Anguilla Island and was seriously injured when hit by a fork lift and flipped onto his head.  Lee suffered a skull fracture and was unconscious.  Due to his serious condition and lack of the necessary medical facilities on Anguilla, Lee was medically airlifted to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  By February, 1996 Lee recovered and returned to the Virgin Islands, living again at Smugglers Cove.  Lee decided to leave the islands in the summer of 1996, spending the next 5 years in southwestern USA.  Living in New Mexico, California and Arizona, he worked for Intuit, Inc. for a period of time and in late 1998 into early 1999 spent time in the Pacific in Fiji and Tonga, living in Palm Springs, California for the first 3 months of 2001.  Lee returned to Tortola and the Virgin Islands in April 2001, basically picking up where he had left off.  Living at Bob Denniston’s Smugglers Cove and sailing.  On the morning of May 13^th, 2002 Lee went to check on Bob who had not kept a ham schedule the night before and found him passed away.  Bob’s death was a severe blow to Lee as he lost a friend, mentor and safe haven.  Lee’s health deteriorated and he became ill while sailing with friends in December, 2003.  He and his friends sailed to Puerto Rico where Lee checked into the VA Medical Center San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Diagnosed with serious heart problems requiring open heart surgery, postponed while Lee gained strength to endure it, Lee survived until 21 February, 2004.   

He is missed. 

Interred at

Puerto Rico National Cemetery

Bayamón, Puerto Rico