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Template:Character Infobox
- "Home? We can’t go home. There’s a line men like us have to cross. If we’re lucky, we do what’s necessary, and then we die. No…all I really want, Captain, is peace."
- — John Konrad
John Konrad is the fales main antagonist in Spec Ops: The Line and the former commander of the 33rd Infantry Battalion, although the Konrad in the game he is a hallucination seen as the main antagonist by Walker. Colonel Konrad and his men volunteered to help evacuate Dubai during the sandstorm crisis, but when ordered to leave by his military superiors, he refused, essentially damning the 33rd Infantry.
Konrad had intended to stay behind and evacuate survivors. He and his men established a new military government in Dubai to maintain order while the evacuation plan was set up. When he attempted his evacuation by road, it failed drastically, leaving 1,300 men, women, and children dead because of his actions.
Throughout the game Konrad contacts and taunts Delta (notably Walker) throughout the story, first appearing in chapter nine after Delta finds the charred remains of his command team. Konrad proceeds to tell them that he was only doing what he thought was necessary as these men disobeyed his direct orders and had to be made examples of if 'order was to be maintained'.
At the end of the story, he is found at the top of the tower, painting a woman and child being stuck in a crowd dying from white phosphorous (reminding Walker of the events at the Gate), and Walker discovers that Konrad has been dead since before Delta arrived in Dubai. The real Colonel Konrad committed suicide after delivering the broadcast two weeks prior, out of guilt for the morally wrong decisions the 33rd ultimately made for the greater good. The Colonel Konrad that Walker has been in contact with for the latter half of the game is actually a traumatic hallucination, existing only within his subconsciousness (acting as the grief in Walker's mind).
According to one of the intel items, a CIA file on the psycho-analysis of John Konrad, the Colonel may have gone to Dubai trying to restore his reputation. He was a highly decorated leader, but his last combat mission in Afghanistan was a failure. According to the file, Konrad had been praised so much previously, that he had come to believe he was a hero, and that when faced with his first failure, he might go to extreme lengths to prove his hero status correct.
This explains why he knew what Walker was going through. Konrad had also tried to be a hero, which had dire consequences of the actions he made.
Quotes
- "You must think that I'm a monster...that I've gone insane. I came to terms with what I am a long time ago, Captain. What about you?"
- — Konrad to Walker.
- "Survival Captain, plain and simple. "
- — Konrad to Walker.
- "You aren't the first man they sent to find me...I doubt you'll be the last."
- — Konrad to Walker.
- "This is Colonel John Konrad. The attempted evacuation of Dubai ended in...complete failure. Death toll: too many."
- — Konrad's distress call.
- "No matter what happens next, don't be too hard on yourself. Even now, after all you've done, you can still go home. Lucky you."
- — Konrad's last words to Walker
- "Everything is teetering on the edge of everything. But this you already know. The rest, you'll have to see for yourself."
- — Konrad to Walker.
- "Do you feel like a hero yet?"
- — Konrad to Walker.
Trivia
- Konrad saved Captain Walker's life during a combat mission in Kabul by dragging him half a mile to an evacuation flight. The ending has Walker talk about Kabul "before it all went bad," implying that some major offensive occurred around the time the 33rd withdrew. Most likely this is a parallel with the US withdrawal from Vietnam.
- Colonel Konrad's surname is a combined reference to the author of Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, a novel that the game is based on, and Kurtz, the antagonist in both Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, the loose movie adaptation of the novella.
- He had a wife named Elizabeth and a son named Jeremy who he writes to in two of the pieces of intel.
- His depicted awards in the introduction are, from left to right, a Congressional Medal of Honor, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit and Soldier's Medal. The "fruit salad" ribbons on the right pocket of his jacket are a Presidential Unit Citation, Joint Meritous Unit Award, Valorous Unit Award, and what appears to be an Army Superior Unit Award. The other side includes a Vietnam Service ribbon. The jacket itself is the older green service uniform.
- Konrad's descent into madness and grief over his failures and the atrocities he has committed is the same fate that eventually befalls Walker.