PASCAGOULA, Miss. – Texas businessman and former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot will speak Saturday at the christening of Northrop Grumman’s 28th Aegis guided missile destroyer William P. Lawrence in Pascagoula, Miss.
The destroyer honors the late Vice Adm. William P. Lawrence, who spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. He later served as superintendent of the Naval Academy.
Lawrence, a Nashville, Tenn., native, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1951.
During the Vietnam War, Lawrence led a strike against a heavily defended target in North Vietnam. He was captured after his aircraft went down and he remained a POW until March 1973.
He continued his Navy career and retired in 1986. Lawrence died in 2005.
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