Ships
- USS Aylwin (DD-355) Captain from 15 June 1938
Clarence Vaille Lee was born on 29 July 1898 and entered the United States Navy through the Naval Academy class of 1919. He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 July 1935, the rank he held when he received command of a destroyer.
On 15 June 1938 Lee became commanding officer of Aylwin (DD-355). The Farragut-class destroyer had been built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, her keel laid on 23 September 1933 and her hull launched on 10 July 1934. She was commissioned on 1 March 1935 under Clarence Gulbranson. Aylwin displaced 1,375 tons, measured 341 feet 3 inches in length, and carried five 5-inch guns, eight 21-inch torpedo tubes, and a complement of 251. Her name honored Lieutenant John Cushing Aylwin, who died of wounds received aboard Constitution in the War of 1812.
Lee commanded Aylwin until 10 February 1941. In those years the ship served with the fleet destroyer force, working through gunnery and torpedo drills and the large exercises that filled the Battle Force calendar as tension in the Pacific rose. He was still a lieutenant commander when he turned the ship over. On 1 April 1941 he was promoted to commander.
In March 1941, after Lee had left, Aylwin was badly damaged in a night collision with Farragut off Hawaii and spent months under repair. She was in Hawaiian waters again by December. On the morning of 7 December 1941 she lay nested at Pearl Harbor with Monaghan, Dale, and Farragut. Robert Henry Rodgers, her commanding officer, was ashore when the attack began. Ensigns already on board opened fire, raised steam, and took Aylwin to sea. Lee was advanced to the temporary rank of captain on 21 June 1942.