Decorated Vietnam War veteran to speak at Bluff Park United Methodist Church
Jim Lawrence, who was designated the “first Alabama veteran of the Vietnam War” by former Gov. George Wallace in 1967, is scheduled to be the speaker for a Veterans Day celebration at Bluff Park United Methodist Church on Nov. 13.
Lawrence, 75, of Mountain Brook was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down after the force of a bullet through his helmet tore the cartilage in the back of his neck during the Battle of Landing Zone Albany in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam in November 1965.
It was one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War. Lawrence was a 24-year-old first lieutenant and executive officer for his company in the Army’s Second Battalion of the 7th Calvary. He received numerous awards for his service in Vietnam, including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Air Medal, Army Commendation Medal and Combat Infantryman’s Badge.
He wrote a book called “Reflections on LZ Albany: The Agony of Vietnam,” which delves into the horrors of war instead of focusing on historical details. “There’s nothing glamorous about war,” Lawrence said. “It’s a horrific experience.”
His talk at Bluff Park United Methodist is entitled “Faith in the Foxhole” and will include both battlefield descriptions and an explanation of how his experiences in Vietnam led him to become a Christian.
Upon returning to civilian life, Lawrence taught composition and literature at Troy State University and the University of Alabama and then began a career in real estate.
He started with Johnson-Rast and Hays in 1978 and was recognized as the company’s top sales manager numerous times. In 1992, he opened LAH, which grew to become the second largest real estate company in the state. He was named the Birmingham Association of Realtors’ Realtor of the Year in 1989 and recognized for outstanding leadership with the Tom Rast Award in 2004.
He served as president of the Birmingham Association of Realtors in 2007 and received the Alabama Association of Realtors’ Robert Jemison Award for outstanding service in 2014 and Harriet Isaacson Award for excellence in real estate education in 2015. He now serves as education director for the Alabama Center for Real Estate.
The celebration at Bluff Park United Methodist begins at 5 p.m. and will include dinner and music by the Hoover High School Jazz Band. The cost for the dinner is $7.
On Nov. 9, the church also is hosting a talk by Tia Martin, a licensed clinical social worker who will speak about the range of readjustment services offered to veterans returning from war and their families. That free talk is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and is open to the public.