A weapon systems officer (WSO), he was killed when his General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark fighter-bomber, tail number 389 and callsign Karma 52, was shot down in action off the coast of Libya on April 15, 1986 during Operation El Dorado Canyon.

He completed USAF Undergraduate Navigator Training (UNT) and was assigned to the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing based at RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom as an F-111 weapon systems officer (WSO).

On April 14, 1986, the United States launched Operation El Dorado Canyon, a U.S. bombing raid into Libya in response to terrorist attacks.

On April 14, 1986, in response to acts of terrorism then believed, and now confirmed, to have been sponsored by Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi – in particular, the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing of April 6 – and against the backdrop of heightened tension and clashes between the Libyan and U.S. navies over the disputed Gulf of Sidra, the United States launched a surprise attack on targets in Tripoli and other parts of Libya.

Neither France nor Spain would agree to U.S. military aircraft overflying of their territory, so the 18 USAF F-111F fighter-bombers which took off from American air bases in the UK had to make a 1,300-mile (2,100 km)[vague] detour by following the Atlantic coast before cutting into the Mediterranean via the Straits of Gibraltar and Portugal to carry out their attack on Libya.

In addition, the 18 F-111Fs were escorted by EF-111A Raven radar jamming aircraft which had launched from RAF Upper Heyford, United Kingdom.

[2] In 1996, Lorence's childhood friend Theodore D. Karantsalis, a Miami-Dade County reference librarian, started a campaign seeking government assistance in locating and recovering the body by April 15, 2006, the 20th anniversary of his death.