By Steve Lathrop
When Allan Conser went to enlist in the military in 1942, he was hoping to get into the Air Corps. Instead, he wound up in the Army.
"They said I was too old for the Air Force," said Conser, who is being honored as a Distinguished Veteran by Albany's Veteran's Commemoration Association. "I was 24, which was a little older than a lot of guys."
He still got the opportunity to fly in the Army, and was shipped to the Pacific in 1943 on what he called "an old banana boat."
"It was converted to be a troop ship. We spent 41 days on it and that was more than enough," said Conser, 92, a Portland native.
The trip, however, gave way to more serious concerns. Engaged against the Japanese first at Morotai in Dutch New Guinea and later at Mindanao in the Philippines, Conser put in 490 hours of combat flight.
"Every morning I'd circle Morotai delivering mail and watch the shoreline for Japanese barges, then pinpoint their location for P.T. boats," Conser said.
His reconnaissance efforts earned him a Silver Star on Mindanao. After returning from a long mission in May 1945, he noticed a flash in the distance and radioed it to headquarters.
"I picked up where it was and after about an hour's artillery duel our Marine dive bombers came in and dropped napalm," he said.
Conser, then a staff sergeant, flew at low altitude taking continuous fire from the enemy. Despite warnings to return to the field, he remained over the position until the dive bombers finished the job.
"I was in quite a battle for a while," he said.
He also remembers the time he and some buddies found an abandoned Japanese refrigerator near their landing strip.
"We got it working but it caught fire. We grabbed an old Japanese hose to douse it but oxygen came out instead," he said, laughing.
The refrigerator lit up. Almost immediately a C-46 transport came out of nowhere to land at the strip.
"The pilot thanked me for sending up a beacon," Conser said. "They were out of gas with 36 men on board."
At war's end he left the service as a second lieutenant, receiving the Silver Star with an Oak Leaf Cluster and three Bronze Stars, among other citations.
Conser returned to Portland and served in the Army Reserve for 20 years, retiring a major. He also worked at General Mills for 30 years. He and his late wife had three children. He has four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.