Lane A. Carson of Covington is a Vietnam war veteran and a former legislator. From 1976 to 1982, Carson served in the Louisiana House of Representatives, representing New Orleans. He was the first Vietnam War veteran to serve in the legislature, and he served on the House & Governmental, Civil Law and Health and Welfare Committees, and the Veterans and Elderly Sub-Committees. In 2001, Carson was appointed to the Louisiana Veterans Affairs Commission representing the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
 
Carson was commissioned as a second lieutenant through LSU Army ROTC in 1970, and later served as a combat platoon leader in Khe Sahn, South Vietnam. He was wounded by North Vietnamese artillery during the Dewy Canyon II operation, resulting in a six-month hospitalization and a 50 percent disability from the Veterans Administration.
 
In 1982, Carson became Assistant Secretary at the Louisiana Department of Health and Human Resources and later began work as an Assistant District Attorney in St. Tammany Parish, where he has served as the Chief of the Civil Division of the Civil Division, 22nd Judicial District Court, for more than 20 years.

Carson also previously served on the Veterans Administration’s Advisory Committee on the Readjustment of Veterans. President Reagan later appointed Carson to serve on the Architectural and Transportation Barrier’s Compliance Board. In 2003, Carson was appointed by President Bush to serve on the National Institute of Building Sciences.
 
Carson has been awarded the Purple Heart, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, and the Combat Infantryman Badge. His father is a war veteran of WWII, and his son is currently serving in the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf. Carson has a bachelors of science in public administration from LSU and a law degree from Tulane University.