Phil Conran served in the Connecticut Air National Guard before receiving his ROTC commission at Fordham University, New York. Serving with the 55th Air Rescue Squadron out of Kindley AFB, Bermuda, from 1962 – 65, he deployed in support of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. He received the Air Force Cross on October 6, 1969, for a mission on the ground in Laos, one of the few ground actions to merit the award. Captain Jackson Hudson, an A-1E Skyraider pilot, also received the Air Force Cross for the same mission. Colonel Conran retired from the Air Force on December 31, 1988.