I don't know if he was a conservative, but he did seem to respect the soldiers he was with on the Eglin AFB program he made. His task was to clear out the snakes from an area where training was going to take place, so that neither man nor snake would be a problem to each other. He was extremely excited about the fighter jet they showed him. Then again, he seemed extremely excited about life in general. Rather wearing to live with, perhaps, but nice to see. He and his exuberance will be missed.
He was a vocal supporter of John Howard according to the internet, so whether he was conservtive as in American conservatism may be be a matter of debate, he was it seems a conservative for Australian politics though
I remember that episode. One of the pilots took him up in an F-15. They had a camera on him in the cockpit and the pilot pushed it until he passed out momentarily from the G-force. It was hilarious.
He was interviewed once and said that he was a conservative... and was referring to the American definition as I recall.