New Salem man headed for tour in Afghanistan
After training for a tour of duty in Iraq, Spc. Ben Conrad of New Salem returned to his wife and parents on a block leave June 9. While he and his family looked forward to his temporary homecoming, Father’s Day will remain bittersweet for the Conrad family.
Instead of attending their family reunion, his parents and wife will send him off with the other soldiers of the HHC 1/110 28th Infantry Division, Mechanized.
Prior to this, the 22-year-old has missed only a handful of reunions, which have always been held on Father’s Day.
“He has to do what he has to do,” said his father, Larry Conrad. “He’s not going for a joy ride. It’s work for our country.”
As a child, Ben Conrad said, his father instilled beliefs many fathers try to pass on to their children.
“He always taught me right from wrong,” he said. “Don’t ever start a fight, and don’t let anybody start one with you. Be proud of who you are and what you do. It has everything to do with all the Army values.”
The two used to garden vegetables such as tomatoes and corn and take weekend trips to camp out at an old farm that has been in the family for generations near the Canal River in West Virginia. The old farm created the ideal spot for camping, hunting and fishing.
Five years ago, Ben Conrad enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard to help pay for college.
“It doesn’t hurt a young boy a bit to be in the service,” his father said. “It makes them grow up. I think it helps his integrity.”
Last year, Ben Conrad bought an 1100 V-Star Yamaha motorcycle and rode it to his father’s house. Larry Conrad liked riding the motorcycle so much that he purchased a 1700 Roadstar Yamaha shortly thereafter. “You don’t get to talk a lot while you’re riding,” Larry Conrad said. “You get the joy of riding together.”
Rumors floated around about a deployment to Afghanistan, so Ben Conrad was not caught completely off guard when the news came that he would take up arms in Iraq.
“I wasn’t too thrilled [at first],” said Ben Conrad. “Once the initial shock was gone, I realized it was my job. I volunteered for this.”
The guardsmen from Ben Conrad’s unit joined forces with other Pennsylvania guardsmen as well as those from Vermont, Rhode Island, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Utah and Nebraska. They have trained at Camp Shelby, Miss., since January, with a month of training at Fort Irwin, Calif.
He and the other servicemen and women underwent intense physical conditioning and weapons familiarization. His platoon set up observation points and worked out in the gym together.
“[The training has] made a big improvement on me,” said Ben Conrad. “I’m sure it has made a big improvement on the other men in my platoon.”
While in training, his parents and wife, Carrie Conrad, did their best to get by without him. “I was just getting used to waking up and going to sleep without him,” Carrie Conrad said. “[I missed] the company- all the little things of having a husband.”
Carrie Conrad and his mother, Jackie Conrad, sent him care packages filled with junk food, hygiene products and photographs.
A photograph of his motorcycle hung in Ben Conrad’s wall locker among his wedding pictures. The care packages often included pictures of his family’s familiar faces as well as their pets.
His father would talk to him about where they would ride when he returned and offered words of encouragement. They had planned to ride to Daytona Beach’s Bike Week. Although only his father could go this year, Ben Conrad looks forward to riding down beside his father when he returns to the United States.
“It would just make it so much harder to not have anybody to back you,” said Ben Conrad. “I think it’d be a lot harder [for soldiers] without a good, strong family backing them.”
While away, the guardsman missed his wife’s graduation from Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus. “That was the biggest thing I missed,” he said. “I don’t regret anything; it’s something I have to do.”
While at home, Ben Conrad had the opportunity to ride his motorcycle alongside his father and spend some quality time with his wife and mother.
Because they will not make their family reunion today, Ben and Larry Conrad made a journey to the old farm with their wives on the back of their bikes. At a steakhouse, they joined the rest of their immediate family on Saturday.
Today his family will wish him well and send him off for the remaining two-thirds of his deployment.
Larry Conrad feels the weight of his son’s entry into a combat zone.
“[In Mississippi], he wasn’t being shot at,” said Larry Conrad. “It was just training. Over there, anything can happen. …We just think about how soon he’ll be back, so we can go riding, hunting and fishing.”