Recipient of Purple Heart Had Prescience : Honor: The Navy medic, first winner of the award in Gulf War, told his fiancee last year that he would win one.

When Stephanie Lee learned that her fiance had won the first Purple Heart awarded in the Persian Gulf War, she smiled as her mind flashed back to a prophetic conversation the couple had early last year.

“We were driving back from Camp Pendleton and he turned to me and said, ‘Babe, I’m gonna win a Purple Heart one day. Just watch, I’ll get it,’ ” Lee, 18, said. “He had no idea then there was going to be a war, but it was like he knew he was destined for this, like he was seeing into the future.”

Wounded by flying shrapnel during a firefight with Iraqi troops, Petty Officer 3rd Class Clarence Dean Conner, 21, was declared by military officials Sunday to be the award’s first recipient in the war.

The Navy medic, assigned to the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the 1st Marine Division from Camp Pendleton, became the first known casualty among allied ground troops when he was struck in the shoulder by a jagged piece of metal near Kuwait’s border with Saudi Arabia.

By Monday, word of the honor had reached most of Conner’s relatives and friends.

Conner, who has the clean-scrubbed, all-American looks of a member of “The Brady Bunch” television show, was described as a level-headed, ever-cheery guy with a broad smile and a passion for Ping-Pong, fitness and fast cars.

“He’s definitely a leader-of-the-pack type of guy,” Lee said in an interview at the modest Banning home she shares with her grandparents and a fluffy orange cat. “He’s very brave, and he’s very dedicated to his country.”

“He’s the best friend a guy could ever want,” said Jonathan Sanchez, 21, Conner’s closest buddy since sixth grade.

Born in Banning, Conner was raised by his grandparents, Florence and the late Clarence Sanders of Hemet, who took him in as an infant because his mother was having financial troubles. He attended Banning High School and, following the wishes of his grandfather, entered the Navy on a four-year enlistment after graduating in 1987, relatives said.

“His grandfather thought it would be a good experience for C.D. . . . and once he signed up he took it very seriously,” said Conner’s aunt, Ruth Wortman, 75, of Hemet. “He was very ambitious and dedicated to his job.”

During high school, Conner worked at a home for developmentally disabled patients in Beaumont, a job friends said steered him toward his chosen position as a Navy medic. Staff at the Valley View Home still remember him.

“Clarence was always a very kind, caring individual who was terrific with the clients,” said Delores Picard, director of nursing services.

Lee, a Banning High School senior who met Conner through a mutual friend in 1989, spent Monday laying plans for a lavish homecoming party and rereading passages from the thick stack of letters Conner has sent since his deployment in August. One letter, dated Sept. 3, looks particularly worn.

“He proposed in this one,” said Lee, pointing out an underlined phrase--’Will You Merry Me?’--printed in large type in the center of the page. “He spelled marry wrong, but I didn’t care.”

Outside, a giant American flag and several yellow ribbons--hung soon after Conner left--flapped in the wind.

“I really hope they send him home soon,” Lee said. It is no wonder. The two are expecting a child March 3--Conner’s birthday--and Lee hopes to have the baby’s father by her side.