Lawrence, Bruce Edward
Air Force Major

Bruce Edward Lawrence, age 25, from Phillipsburg, New Jersey.

Date of death: July 5, 1968
Death details: Major Lawrence joined the U.S. Air Force from Pennsylvania and was a member of the 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On July 5, 1968, he was the navigator aboard an F-4C Phantom II (serial number unknown) on a night armed reconnaissance mission over enemy targets in Quang Binh Province, Vietnam. The Phantom was downed by enemy anti-aircraft fire during the mission, and Maj Lawrence was killed in the crash, but his remains were not recovered at the time. After the war, joint U.S./Vietnamese search teams excavated crash sites in the area of Maj Lawrence’s loss, recovering human remains. In 2011, modern forensic techniques identified Maj Lawrence’s remains from among those recovered.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency