Episode 15: The Lawrence Influence
As a midshipman attending the United States Naval Academy, I had a chance encounter with some incredible people with an incredible past. They taught me about listening, thinking and staying humble the whole while. The Lawrence family and their patriarch, the late VADM William P. Lawrence, remains an incredible influence on me. This podcast is the first of many introducing you to his past, explaining how I met these folks, and how they impacted my lives. It is my honor to share these stories with you.
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Full Episode Transcription
Welcome to My Life as a Landlord, where we untangle all things housing and educate the curious. If
you're looking for some entertainment with some honest, awkward conversations, you've come to the
right show. I'm your host, Dr. Jennifer Salisbury. This is my life as a landlord. Welcome to it. 1s Hello.
Hello. Welcome to this week's episode of My Life as a Landlord. This is your host, your teacher, your
educator, your guru, Dr. Jen. I am so honored to present this week's episode, other Salisbury Adventures,
where I'm going to talk all about the late Vice Admiral William Porter Lawrence, United States Navy,
who has sadly passed away. This episode is the first of many. This man taught me so much. I'm so
honored to bring these experiences to you, my first hand experiences to you from this incredible person.
And so I'm going to talk all about my sponsor, dad sponsors at the Naval Academy and the Air Force
Academy in the US. And at West Point. What they do, the local community opens their homes to the
cadets and midshipmen. And on the weekends, there's a spot where they can go and watch TV and have
time away from their respective academies. And so they're local families. And my sponsor family was
the Lawrence family. And the more I learned about these people, the more in awe. And I was, and I'm
still in awe of these people. And it's been 2005 plus years, more than that, almost 30 years since I first
met them, and they're still influencing my life every single day. So let me tell you who this person
was, and I'll tell you, I'm sure he did so much that I know I'm going to leave stuff out. So if you're
listening to this, know there's more to come and know that I am not going to put every little bit in this.
William Porter Lawrence. He grew up in Tennessee. He was a 1951 United States Naval Academy grad.
He was a football captain, brigade commander, and class president. Now, that's three major titles that if
there has been someone else after Admiral Lawrence did this football captain, brigade commander, and
class president, it's probably not many because that is an incredible lineup. Just to be one of those things,
much less three of those things all at the same time, that's pretty amazing. He also developed the United
States Naval Academy honor concept, which is the basis of integrity, basis of honor at the Naval
Academy. And in two words, I can tell you he was a gentle giant. This man was an incredible listener, an
incredible learner, and he was a fighter pilot. In fact, many of you know the name Chuck Yeager. Chuck
Yeager was the first fighter pilot to ever go Mach One, ever break the sound barrier. But William
Lawrence was the first one to ever break Mach Two. Most people don't know that. That was my william
Lawrence was my sponsor dad. And so he was the first one ever on the planet to go Mach Two. And if
you remember, in the 1960s, you ended up with seven astronauts that went all over the place, went on
Apollo, went on Gemini, orbited the Earth, went to the moon. Well, Admiral Lawrence was in line for
that. He actually made the last cut all the way up to the last 14 astronauts. So he trained with all these
people alan Shepard and John Glenn, all of the Gus Grissom, all those guys. He trained with all of them.
And then NASA found a heart murmur and cut him out of the final seven. And so he almost made it to
being an astronaut, which is pretty freaking remarkable. But he ended up as a commander of an air
squadron, an air wing on one of the aircraft carriers. I forget which one. But he was shot down North
Vietnam, and he was taken to Hanoi, where he spent over six years. 1s In prison as a prisoner of war. He
was tortured and he met many, many people. In fact, he was the second highest ranking person in the
Hanoi Hilton, which is the nickname of where they kept all the prisoners in North Vietnam, the Hanoi
Hilton. There he met John McCain, who is probably one of the more famous prisoners of war there. Of
course, John McCain was shot down as well and famously had many injuries. John McCain did. He
broke his legs. And if you've ever seen former videos of him, you notice that he can't lift his arms up. His
shoulders were frozen. There were many issues with John McCain because he had injuries and then they
had healed wrong. So, of course, Admiral Lawrence knew John McCain was in prisoner with John
McCain, and Admiral Lawrence was second in command. He was second highest in the prison. Admiral
Stockdale was the highest ranking in there, and Admiral Lawrence was the second highest ranking. And
there were almost 600 of these prisoners of war altogether. 2s And eventually these men were released.
You guys may be old enough to remember when they were released and people running out to the
tarmac, they were released in five planes. And Admiral Lawrence in his study has a picture, and it was a
picture of men in a plane cheering and he's sitting there in the plane, and I asked him one day, I said,
what is this picture? And he says, that is the picture of us taking off from North Vietnam. And we knew
for real that we were going home. 1s Wow. 1s This is the kind of stuff as a midshipman, where I was just
a kid that grew up in Albuquerque and I happened to stumble on these people. 1s Wow. I can tell you
admiral Lawrence died in 2005, and what an incredible loss. But he died two weeks after his
autobiography was published. His autobiography is called Tennessee Patriot, and if you want to know
more about this man, I highly encourage you to do so. He was a huge Navy football fan, and in fact, he
was the Naval Academy superintendent. And just an incredible human being all around. It was in his
book, The Tennessee Patriot that I learned that he was one of the test pilots that did fly missions and
bomb Kahulave, which is one of the islands here in Maui County. But I didn't know until his book that he
crashed his plane in between Maui and Kahulave actually, I think, between Maui and Molakini. And so
his plane crashed and sank in about 100ft of water. And there was a rumor somewhere that one of the
boat companies in Kihei knew where his plane was because inevitably, most of the pilots had their name
painted on the side of the plane. So if that plane ever shows up just right off the coast of Maui I'd be very
interested to either see it or dive. I could even dive and go see it. But Tennessee Patriot is his book. So, in
a nutshell, that is William Porter lawrence. Oh, by the way, he has a destroyer named after him right
now, which is absolutely incredible. I can't wait to see the destroyer at some point soon. But how on earth
did I meet this guy? 1s So the story is pretty incredible. After he was released as a prisoner of war
remember I told you he was in there with John McCain? John McCain couldn't walk right. He was
released on crutches and had numerous number of injuries. John McCain started doing work with a
physical therapist named Diane Wilcox. Now, John called Diane a physical torturous because if you can
imagine, after years of healing broken bones that are not healed in the right way, she basically had to
retrain his body to be correct. And so Diane Wilcox was his physical therapist and worked with him quite
a bit. So John was working with Diane at the meantime when the prisoners of war were released,
william Lawrence, his family, 1s which was two daughters and one son, and he had a wife. The problem
was that he was gone so long over six years, that his wife was unable to believe that he was still alive.
And so she legally divorced him and remarried. And so if you can imagine, after being held in prison for
that long. 1s Coming up to the tarmac with your three children and your wife, the princess that you
married, and her new husband. Now, come to find out, this was actually a blessing because many of the
prisoners came out of Hanoi Hilton, and then they had to endure the divorce because family members
were in disbelief that they were still alive and weren't able to handle it and so on. Unfortunately, as
heartbreaking as all of it is, he said that the fact that his wife was able to move on while he was gone was
a blessing. This is also the man that told me that Torturing wasn't bad because they didn't torture him
every day. That gives you some kind of context what an incredible human being this guy was. So
anyway, back to when they got released. John McCain's getting tortured in his physical therapy sessions
with Diane. John introduces Diane to his buddy William Bill. So Diane and William fall in love, and
they get married. And fast forward 20 years. I am a plebe at the US. Naval Academy. In the summer of
1994, I had just left my family in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and flown over and did endured boot camp
at the Naval Academy. And I had my hair cut very short. And my mom and I are sitting in church, and
we're crying because Mom's about to get on a plane to go back to Albuquerque. And I'm by myself. And
the sponsors that I had been assigned, the local families that I had been assigned weren't really aligning
with me. They really wasn't what I wanted. And there was a gentleman during the church service reached
back and shook my hand and said, peace be with you, young man. Well, I wasn't a young man, but
unbeknownst to me, the lady sitting next to the guy was Diane Lawrence. And she turned around and
said, oh, I know you're a beautiful young lady. And of course, as we're walking out of the church, the
Naval Academy Chapel, diane Lawrence strikes up a conversation with mom and I, and we explain who
we are and sponsors and this and that. And she said, well, I'll sponsor you. Well, keep in mind, during
boot camp, I had been told many, many times that the sponsor families have to go through vetting. They
have to go through a very rigorous process to be a sponsor family. You can't just pick people off the
street. So I'm trying to relay this to this lady who I have no idea who she was. Now, come to find out,
Diane Lawrence. 1s Was with William when he was the US. Naval Academy superintendent, which is
literally the house next to the chapel at the Naval Academy yard. I have no idea of this, right? I'm just
remember I'm just a 17 year old kid out of boot camp who has got haircut short and just scared. And so
she says, oh, I'll meet my husband, the admiral. He'll take care of it all. 1s And he did. Let me just put it
that way. He did. In fact, a couple of days later, I got a message, and one of my upper classmen came and
screamed at me, why was an admiral calling and leaving a message for me? What the hell did I do to this
admiral? And I explained to him, I said, sir, this is my sponsor family, at which point their jaw was on
the ground, because the Lawrence family is quite well known. This is not a secret of these people that I
had stumbled. And he said, how in the hell did you get the sponsor, the Naval Academy the Lawrence's,
to be your Naval Academy sponsor? And I said, I don't know. I met them in church. I don't know. And so
that's what ended up happening. So the first time I went to their house, it was just a green plebe. Knew
nothing. Who are these people? They had floor to ceiling pictures on the walls, a bust of William on the
counter in their a kitchen, huge mastiff, dogs. And just incredible naval Academy people. They just
were amazing, loyal people. And I didn't know any of their history. Keep in mind, I knew nothing about
this. And I found this bowl of they looked like bicycle clips, like hose clips, hose clamps, these silver
things in a bowl. And I picked one up. In fact, I have one sitting right here that says William P.
Lawrence. And what it is is it was a prisoner of war bracelet, a whole bowl full of them that people had
worn for Admiral Lawrence while he was kept in captivity. And when he was returned, they mailed them
back to either him or his mother. That was pretty typical. Wow. And he had a whole bowl full of these
incredible bracelets. And so I slowly but surely figured out who these people were and learned that when
Bill Lawrence told me a story, I shut up. There was several days where he went on and on and on and
told me many firsthand stories about people trying to escape the Hanoi Hilton. And he would ask me
about how my naval leadership class was going. And, of course, Bill Lawrence was in my Naval
leadership book, right? He was in the book. And so he would tell me some of these firsthand stories, and
he and I would talk about these different scenarios. And Dr. Carl Montor, who was my naval leadership
professor, of course, and I didn't know this, but he knew Bill. He knew Bill and 1s spoke of the traits that
it took to be a successful naval leader. And it was just incredible. I mean, even now, my naval leadership
books that I have in storage, they're all by Dr. Carl Montere. They were all written by the professor, but
they all contain stories about Admiral Stockdale, John McCain, Bill Lawrence. All these people that were
in this prisoner of war was incredible. 1s But what did I learn? What did I learn from this incredible man
that I happened to stumble upon meeting his wife in church on a chance meeting? Many people would
call it a coincidence. I think there was a reason why I was supposed to meet the Lawrence family. I've
learned many, many, many things that I watch more than I listen. I don't. I try to be of value to the
other person. The mind is a powerful thing. And I saw Admiral Lawrence many times 1s when the
Naval Academy football team was playing away games, because, of course, they had season tickets to the
home games. But when they were playing away, I saw him watch many games. Actually, that's a lie. He
didn't watch them. The game was on the TV, but it was on mute. And what he was doing is he had the
radio on, and the radio announcer was announcing the play by play, and Bill was sitting listening
intently, fully present, listening intently on the radio announcer. And I was just watching him do this
because I couldn't figure out why the TV was on. He wasn't watching the TV, but the only reason the TV
was on was for the instant replay. 1s So he realized this. He was watching the game in his head, and
when there was a debatable call, he would open his eyes and watch the TV for the call and how it would
all play out. And then he would close his eyes again and go back to radio. And so this is how he
consumed the Navy football games. I've never seen anybody else consume a game like this. It's always
been by TV. It's pretty incredible how he did this. I happened to be, as a midshipman, I was on the US.
Naval Academy honor staff my senior year. It was my honor to be the Honor Secretary. And of course,
this was all set up as a part of the honor concept from Admiral Lawrence when he graduated in 1951. I
graduated in 1998 as a member of the honor staff, which is pretty incredible. Again. He would tell me
firsthand stories in Carl Montor's books. He would tell me stories that weren't in his books. And I'm
really sad to tell you that. I wish I knew more. I wish I had written more. Firsthand stories down. I wish I
had taken a recorder to be a part of that because his firsthand accounts and most importantly, his
perspective his perspective of the time in Hanoi brought him closer to the almost 600 other people that
were held captive. He learned languages, he taught math. He consumed this time, he took this experience
as an incredible positive. And again, his response was they didn't torture us every day. And that statement
alone 1s really personifies who this man was. Most fighter pilots, when you think of it, they're outspoken.
They're like Iceman and Top Gun. They're pump your chest out, and I'm the best. That was not Bill
Lawrence. Bill Lawrence was commanding respect in a room, and he didn't even have to say one word.
He was incredible. In every podcast, I always give three points. My three points of this one was, who
is William Lawrence? I've done my best attempt to tell you a little bit about this incredible man, told you
how I met him and a few things that I've learned from him. And I'm excited to tell you that there are
going to be more and more stories about not only William Lawrence, but also Diane Lawrence and then
one of their daughters, Wendy Lawrence, who is also a Distinguished Naval Academy graduate and an
astronaut, four time shuttle astronaut. I'm excited to tell you more about this family, but I suspect that as
the Lawrences have influenced me, there are other people who have influenced you. So this week's call to
action is very simple. Who has impacted your life? 1s Who has impacted your life? And inevitably,
somebody has popped in your head already. Think about how that person has impacted your life, how
that has made you think maybe changed your behaviors. 1s Gave you incredible memories. 1s And then
one other thing I want to push on you is how can you take those memories and impact others? 1s I am
impacting others specifically through this podcast. Bill Lawrence, I can just imagine, would be sitting on
his couch listening to my podcast if he were alive today. And I have to be careful because I'll tear up if I
talk too much about them. 1s But these impacts are quite powerful. So I challenge you. Who has
impacted your life and how can you impact others? Thanks so much for listening to this week's episode,
as I get to tell you about some of the most incredible people that have ever impacted my life. Next week's
episode is all about landlord. We'll talk about all things animals, pets, emotional support, animals,
wildlife, aquariums. We'll talk about all that. Boy, that is an amazing emotional roller coaster for me
as a podcast. What an amazing impact the Lawrence influence has had on my life. I look forward to
teaching you some more next week. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time. Thank you for
joining us this week. To view the complete show notes and all the links mentioned in today's episode,
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