By Adam Bernstein Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, December 5, 2005; Page B04 William P. Lawrence, 75, a retired Navy vice admiral who was among the highest-ranking members of the armed forces held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and who later served three years as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, died Dec. 2 at his home in Crownsville. He had a stroke a decade ago. Early on, Adm. Lawrence was a test pilot and the first naval aviator to fly twice the speed of sound -- 1,300 mph. In the late 1950s, he was a Navy nominee for Project Mercury, which would lift John Glenn and Alan Shepard to orbit and fame as the first Americans in space. Adm. Lawrence was disqualified when a minor heart murmur was discovered. Adm. William P. Lawrence was the first naval aviator to fly at twice the speed of sound. He also was a prisoner of war in Vietnam and head of the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Adm. William P. Lawrence was the first naval aviator to fly at twice the speed of sound. He also was a prisoner of war in Vietnam and head of the Naval Academy in Annapolis. (U.s. Naval Academy)
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