SSG Conrad served as a gunner aboard an 8th Air Force B-24J before becoming a Prisoner of War (POW) after his aircraft was shot down over Germany. His experience of being a POW is detailed in the attached copy of an article from the Jonesboro Sun, published in 2006.

SSG Conrad has been hesitant to discuss his time as a POW until recent years. He still retains shrapnel in his injured leg and now struggles to walk any long distances due to age. Prior to being shot down, he completed two bombing missions on Normandy each day on June 5 and June 6, 1944, in preparation for the D-Day landings.

Please refer to his flight record for November 1944, which includes these missions and his official designation as Missing in Action (MIA). Although SSG Conrad had completed the standard tour of duty in the war zone, his tour was extended twice before he was shot down. Copies of telegrams notifying his mother of his MIA status and subsequent acknowledgment of his POW status are attached.

Also included is a copy of his Honorable Discharge certificate listing several awards, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Purple Heart. The nomination paperwork contains copies of most of the documents in his possession.

SSG Conrad has lived in Arkansas his entire life, except from 1964 to 1973 when he was recruited as the plant manager of a national shoe manufacturing facility in Marietta, GA.