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John Robert Lawrence
First Lieutenant
C CO, 5TH BN, 7TH CAVALRY, 1ST CAV DIV, USARV Army of the United States Shawnee, Oklahoma June 26, 1943 to February 22, 1968 JOHN R LAWRENCE is on the Wall at Panel 40E, Line 65 |
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1LT JOHN ROBERT LAWRENCE
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John Robert Lawrence -- J.R. or Johnny Bob to those who were lucky enough to know him -- enlisted in Shawnee, Oklahoma after graduating from college there. His actual hometown was Earth, Texas. (Those who thought he was joking when he named his hometown soon learned that this name was for real.) He was proud to be from Earth, very proud to be from Texas, and lump-in-the-throat proud to be from the U.S.A. J.R. majored in history and political science in college, and he believed history was made by people who pitched in and did what they thought was right instead of sitting back while others served. And he also believed it was right to volunteer for the Army and go to Vietnam; so that was what he did, dying at the age of twenty-four in the month after his arrival. He has been dead over three decades now, and Americans still argue about whether or not the war that took him ought to have ever been fought. But whatever the truth of that may be - and I do not claim the omniscience it would take to know the answer - the courage of young men who willingly put themselves in harm's way for what they believed their nation asked and mankind needed from them must be honored. J.R. Lawrence was one such man; and if anyone in my generation deserves to be especially remembered as one of "the best and the brightest" (as many do), surely among them is my friend John Robert Lawrence of Earth, Texas, U.S.A.
A memorial from his friend, |
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