Veterans in Blue - Lt. Col. James Lawrence

Lt. Col.(Ret.) James Lawrence was born in Covington county, Ala, in 1947 andcommissioned in the Air Force during the height of the Vietnam war to become a pilot. A graduate of Officer Training School and Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance Air Force Base, Okla., he was an instructor and check pilot in the T-38 Talon, instructor in C-130 Hercules in Japan, and instructor and flight examiner in both the AC-130H Spectre at Hurlburt Field, Fla., and the HC-130 in Aerospace Rescue and Recovery at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Eighteen years of his service were in Special Operations. During this time he helped develop standards and procedures new to the AC-130 gunship airframe. In 1979, he became co-holder of a new C-130 world record for time and distance of over 29 hours and 8,000 miles. After moving on from the flying community, Lawrence became an instructor of Unconventional Warfare and Crisis Response Management, eventually promoting to the Vice Commandant of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School, Hurlburt Field, Fla. After retiring from the Air Force, Lawrence wrote a book outlying his experiences in the Air Force, and later went on to publish a second book written from interviews of veterans from all over the country.