AUSTIN, Texas— Today, Texas Land Commissioner and Veterans Land Board (VLB) Chairwoman Dawn Buckingham, M.D., is proud to introduce the next installment of the series highlighting the VLB's Voices of Veterans oral history program. This week, we highlight the service of Senior Master Sergeant (SMSgt) Edward Conrad who served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.
Conrad said he was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma in 1918 and said his "Grandpa owned a rock quarry and most of Pawnee was built from the Conrad rock quarry." He said both his parents died when he was young, his mother when he was seven years old to influenza and his father shortly after he graduated from high school.
He said the death of both his parents was the reason he joined the service. He said "That's the reason, I was kind of getting hungry, so I joined the Air Forces." Conrad said his stepmother needed to sign a waiver because he was a minor, joining the military at 17, which was before WWII started.
Conrad said he joined the military about a year before WWII started and that he "lucked out on some of the tests because I got some high scores" and was sent to Randolph Field.
"We didn't have boot camp like they do now," Conrad explained. "I went in at Randolph Field and back then, the Air Force was just getting started, in fact, it was part of the Army, it was Army Air Forces and I got in on the ground floor and I looked like a high school kid because I didn't look my age."
Aircraft Maintenance was Conrad's Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) in the Army Air Corps and as one story goes, he talked about Randolph Field and the logistics of it. "Instead of a cement runway, it was a dirt runway and about once a week, we had a big truck out there with about a half dozen Privates picking up rocks" as part of the maintenance of the field.
Conrad said one of the aircraft he worked on and was responsible for was the "H-Model B-52 Bomber, the last of the B-52's made. Conrad detailed what used to be "classified information" when it came to the latest model B-52. "It was an eight engine bomber that carried 43 750-pound bombs to Vietnam and it made a hell of a lot of holes in the ground and knocked down a lot of palm trees."
Conrad said for "some reason" he was chosen to go to Guam and set up where they could "hold a different B-52 model, so not the H-Model but the D-Mo." He said he was chosen to go help them get into a rhythm, so to speak, ahead of some night missions where they'd "drop bombs after they did away with a lot of the vegetation because the enemy was hiding under the trees."
"I forget how many times we bombed them per week," Conrad added about the missions to Vietnam from Guam.
To listen to SMSgt. Edward Conrad tell his story, click the button below:
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RELATED: Voices of Veterans: Staff Sergeant Harvey Gann Shares His Story of Service in the U.S. Army Air Corps
Veterans can email VoicesofVeterans@glo.texas.gov to tell their stories. Please note that the Veteran must be a resident of Texas at the time of their interview.
Voices of Veterans is a state agency's first Veteran oral history program. It records the stories of Texas Veterans through their time in service and after returning home from combat.
The VLB records interviews with Veterans over the phone or in person. Their interviews are then permanently archived in the Office of Veterans Records at the GLO, where they join the historical documents of other Texas heroes such as Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Barret Travis.
Veterans' interviews are also available to researchers, historians, genealogists, and the public. These precious records inspire future generations and remind us of our Veterans' sacrifices.
To listen to the over 500 archived stories of Veterans documented through the GLO's Voices of Veterans oral history program, click the button below:
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Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, M.D., brings a lifetime of experience to the Texas General Land Office (GLO). In 2016, she became the first Republican elected to the Texas State Senate from Travis County and the first woman to represent Texas Senate District 24. She made history again in 2022, winning a statewide election to become our state’s first female Land Commissioner.