In memory of Conrad Francis McDonald

It's difficult to imagine in this day and age a time when every Lucas Countyan lived on edge --- not only because of concern about the great world war then raging but also because practically every household was related to someone in harm's way, serving in either the European or Pacific theater of operations.

So there were sighs of relief on May 8, 1945, when Germany surrendered, and more on Sept. 2, 1945, when Japan surrendered after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But just two days later, on Sept. 4, 1945, Conrad Francis McDonald, U.S. Navy aviation radioman 3rd class, age 20, of Williamson, was killed in a plane crash "somewhere over the pacific."

Conrad's parents were my childhood barber, Francis McDonald (1903-1987), and Rosa (1904-1994), his wife. Francis worked as a barber in both Williamson and Chariton.

Conrad was born in Lucas County on April 12, 1925, and graduated from Williamson High School with the class of 1943 before enlisting in the U.S. Navy, inducted Aug. 23, 1943.

As noted Friday in a post headlined "The valor of U.S. Marine Corps PFC Franklin W. McDonald," Conrad's first-cousin, Franklin W. McDonald, had been killed in action a year earlier, on June 15, 1944; and the text that had accompanied his posthumous Silver Star Medal was published on the front page of the Chariton Leader of Sept. 18, 1945, which also reported Conrad's death.

Details of the crash that claimed Conrad's life are frustratingly scarce, but an article published in The Herald-Patriot of June 21, 1945, about his unit provides a good deal of information:

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Utility Squadron Seven is a jack-of-all trades outfit "somewhere west," a roving group which performs many tasks for the vast Pacific Fleet. Its pilots and aircrewmen fly single-engine aircraft today and twin-engine jobs tomorrow. They go early, fly long, come home late and do the same thing the next day.

Officially, Squadron VJ-7 performs these tasks, among other things: 1. Towing targets, "dragging rags" for warship gun crew practice; 2. Helping to train shore batteries in anti-aircraft fire; 3. Giving technical aid in various kinds of new developments, working with every outfit from submarines to jet-assisted aircraft; 4. Providing fighter, dive bomber and torpedo groups with gunnery facilities.

In addition, there is the Fleet Air Photographic Laboratory, now assigned to VJ-7. It is the central clearing house for combat photography for the entire Pacific air command. Its photographers fly long, over-water missions and participate in every phase of the squadron's varied duties.  Most of their work cannot be told, but one of their most important assignments is reconnaissance photography.

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Conrad's remains were not recovered. He is commemorated on Tablets of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii, and on a cenotaph in the Chariton Cemetery.