LTC Lawrence Pope Crocker USA (Retired)
Cullum: 18038
Class: '51
Cadet Company: I2
Date of Birth: May 9, 1928
Date of Death: September 14, 2006 - View or Post a Eulogy
Ten days following graduation LTC Crocker married his high school sweetheart, and went into the Corps of Engineers. He was a Platoon Leader with the 21st Engineer Combat Battalion at Camp Carson, Colorado, he reported to the 378th Engineer Combat Battalion in Korea where he served as Platoon Leader and then Company Commander from 1952 to 1953. He was decorated with the Bronze Star Medal. From February 1953 through December 1954, he was stationed in Japan, serving as Aide to the Engineer of the Far East Command. He went on to school at Iowa State College where he earned a Master of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering, graduating in 1956. served the remainder of his service in assignments related to the Army nuclear power program; two years at the National Labratory in Oak Ridge Tenn.; two years at the Atomic Energy Commission; one year with the Army IG; two years in OCRD in the Pentagon; and Two years at Lajes Air Base in teh Azores handling contract construction for the Air Force and one year at Fort Leavenworth for C&Gs. His Vietnam tour was spent in Thailand as CO of the 528th Engineer Construction Battalion and later as Deputy Commander, Special Troops, Thailand. He retired from the Army in 1970 and spent the next 20 years working for the AEC and its successor agency, the Nuclear Regularty Commission in various assignments related to the licensing, construction and operation of commercial nuclear power plants. he retired in 1990 and spent the next five years working for a consultant firm in WA.
In 1964 he assisted with updating and for 27 years authored successive editions of "The Army Officer's Guide."
He is survived by his wife, four children, and seven grandchildren.
From the Howitzer:
"A son and advocate of the West, Crock arrived here from the Airborne Infantry, but has decided that his nature is more for the Engineers. His ability with slide rule and figures is exceeded only by his good nature, nightly letters, and eagerness for post-graduation nuptials. Boning graduation and Engineers, his persistence and easygoing ways will carry him beyond these, to greater fields."
