Richard Wayne Conrad

Birth date	December 22, 1931
Age they entered the service	20
Hometown	Belle Plaine, IA
Branch of the service	Army
Rank	Corporal
Name of their unit	300^th AEA Battalion 10^th division
When they served	1952-1954
Where did you serve?	Korea
Did you enlist or were you drafted?	Drafted
How did you feel about going to war?	I thought it was something that the we should do.
Did you have any family members that went to war. If so, did they survive?	No
Were you ever wounded? How and where?	No
Did you receive any medals? Which ones?	No

Do you have a war story you would like to tell?	It was me leading three Korean’s who couldn’t speak English ,and I couldn’t speak Korean, laying a telephone wire underground to another outfit. But before we got there we were under fire. It turns out that the night before the outfit we were trying to reach had pulled out and we were under mortar attack.
What was your reaction when you found out the war was over?	I was happy of course but I didn’t do anything special because I had to stay in Korea a while longer.
What was the most frightening event of the war for you?	The first time I was pinned down by Mortar attack.
What was the most cherished memory of the war for you?	Finding out that my front line points allowed me to get back to the states sooner.
Do you have regrets about your service?	No
How do you feel about America today?	We are too controlled by politics and not the real value of things.
How do you feel about the war with Iraq?	It was good to go in but now we need to establish a government and move out as quick as we can. We had the right idea we just failed to plan.
Is there anything else you would like to add?	I am concerned about the relationship between the reserves and the army. The reserves sign up to protect our nation and the Army signs up to move around and things like that. So I think we need our Army in the Middle East and not our reserves.