Rev. Lawnie Coffman
and the
1st Platoon, Company L
iWebTech:: Chird Bobbitt © White County 1997-2xxx  All rights reserved

Searcy man to be honored in France for role in liberation
Coffman honored by French for WWII acts     White County Veterans Affairs
THANKS GI's

by Stacy Hudson       11/15/2000
Staff Writer, Searcy Daily Citizen

Searcy minister recalls WWII

        When the Reverend Lawnie Coffman entered World War II, there were 30 men from Arkansas and Kansas making up his platoon. The men took their basic training in San Louis Obisco, CA, and completed their advanced training in Alabama, Tennessee, W. Virginia, N. Carolina, New Jersey, and Bodmin, England.
        "I was 21 years old when I entered the service. Now at almost 79, I am the last man of the 30 that started with the first platoon, Company L."
        Throughout WWII, Coffman and the rest of his company traveled from the English Channel to Germany. During this time, he saw two-thirds of his men die, including his company sergeant. This, in turn, led him to become sergeant a few days later.
        "Twenty out of thirty (men), I saw them die," he said, adding that of the others that were left, eight to 10 of those were captured and killed.
        Four men from a platoon of thirty were the only ones to make it back home alive, Coffman said, adding that all of those four have died - "except me."
        "The thing that stands out the most is the fact that for some reason, out of 30 men, I'm the last one that came out," he noted.
        When his daughters offered to take him anywhere in the world, he thought about going back to Germany to retrace all the battles he fought and the places where his platoon partners had been killed. He also wanted to go back and :hug a hackberry tree" - the same one he hid behind to escape shots during one of the battles.
        But, he concluded, it would be too horrible to relive all of those terrifying moments.
        "(There) wasn't any use in going back and fighting the battle all over again," he said.
        Coffman recollected some of his memories about the war during a recent interview.
        On October 8, 1944, he received a Bronze Star for heroic service and military operations in destroying an enemy stronghold. When the advance of his platoon was killed by intense fire from an enemy machine gun, Coffman, a member of the rocket-launcher team, and another soldier volunteered to go forward and flank the enemy's position, while other members of the platoon fired shots.
        Coffman and his comrade, in the face of heavy machine gun fire and sniper activity, went toward the German emplacement and fired the rocket-launcher, destroying the stronghold and enabling his company to continue its mission.
        "I did not mean to be a hero, I just did what had to be done," he explained.
        Perhaps the most unforgettable event of the war for Coffman occurred on November 18, 1944, as the U.S. troops were going toward the Rual Valley of Germany. The tanks were stuck in a marshland about one-half mile from the town, Coffman wrote in one of his books, "The Promise," Machine guns and other ammunition were firing all around them, he added.
        Suddenly, he said, something struck him from his right. He recalled his left hand hanging around his neck over his right shoulder. Coffman had been hit by a 37mm shell that was being used to shoot tanks. It had went through his right shoulder and then exploded 50 yards away, he wrote in "My leg of the Race."
        As the blood ran down, it soaked a New Testament Bible that was in his shirt pocket which he had found after a young military replacement had been killed.
        This wound left him without any use of his left arm.
        "I made God a promise that if he would make it possible for me to get back to a hospital and live, I would spend the balance of my life in the Lord's work," Coffman said.
        Coffman attended Free Will Baptist Bible College in Nashville, TN, and Harding College in Searcy.
        In 1952, he organized the first Free Will Baptist church located on West Center Street in Searcy. He pastored there at Chapel Lane for seven years.
        After resigning there he went on to Star City for a few years, and then organized South Heights Free Will Baptist Church in Searcy, where he ministered for 15 1/2 years.
        After 42 years of pastoring in eight churches, Coffman retired.
        "I retired from pastoring but not preaching, he wrote in "My leg of the Race."
        "One of the things I enjoy most is entertaining my friends from all over the world with my lake house," he said, adding that he stays there from three to five days each week.
        The government has been a good help financially, added Coffman. It has given him numerous "perks" such as hunting and fishing licenses, a new Buick, car tags to last him the rest of his life, a waiver of insurance premiums, educational assistance for each of his three children, as well as extra compensation for the loss of the use of his left arm.
        Coffman wrote in "The Promise" that he keeps on his desk the Purple Heart that is accompanied by two oak leaf clusters, signifying the three times he was wounded in battle, the Bronze Star medal he received for destroying the enemy's stronghold, and the New Testament Bible that was in his pocket the day he was shot in the shoulder, its pages still stuck together by blood.
        "I had a lot of close calls during the war," he said. "I guess the Lord had something for me to do. He had to make it possible for me to come back."
        Coffman's awards and medals he received while in the Army included Campaign medal; a European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign medal (with four stars on it to stand for the four major battles in which he fought); four Battle Stars; a Combat two Bronze Stars; a Good Conduct medal; an Honorable Discharge Eagle; and two awards naming him an Expert Rifle Man and an Expert Carbine.