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Lou Conter, Last Survivor of the USS Arizona, Passes at Age 102

Lou Conter, Last Survivor of the USS Arizona, Passes at Age 102

A true hero who survived the Arizona and being shot down later in World War II, Lou Conter served his his country long and admirably. May he rest in peace.

In what can only be described as the end of an era, Lou Conter, the last survivor of the USS Arizona, which was destroyed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (see above), has died at age 102.

Christian Index reports: Lou Conter, last survivor of USS Arizona from Pearl Harbor attack, dies at 102:

The last living survivor of the USS Arizona battleship that exploded and sank during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor has died. Lou Conter was 102.

Conter passed away at his home Monday in Grass Valley, California following congestive heart failure, his daughter, Louann Daley said.

The Arizona lost 1,177 sailors and Marines in the 1941 attack that launched the United States into World War II. The battleship’s dead account for nearly half of those killed in the surprise attack.

Did Conter just jump overboard and save his own skin that fateful day? Hardly.

Conter was a quartermaster, standing on the main deck of the Arizona as Japanese planes flew overhead at 7:55 a.m. on Dec. 7 that year. Sailors were just beginning to hoist colors or raise the flag when the assault began.

Conter recalled how one bomb penetrated steel decks 13 minutes into the battle and set off more than 1 million pounds of gunpowder stored below.

The explosion lifted the battleship 30 to 40 feet out of the water, he said during a 2008 oral history interview stored at the Library of Congress. Everything was on fire from the mainmast forward, he said.

“Guys were running out of the fire and trying to jump over the sides,” Conter said. “Oil all over the sea was burning.”

His autobiography “The Lou Conter Story” recounts how he joined other survivors in tending to the injured, many of them blinded and badly burned. The sailors only abandoned ship when their senior surviving officer was sure they had rescued all those still alive.

These two short videos, a historical explanation of how Arizona was attacked, and the Arizona attack scene from the movie Pearl harbor, give you an idea about how Arizona was destroyed:

First, a short technical history lesson:

Next, the three-minute recreation of the attack from Pearl Harbor:

So Conter was a true hero to just survive the attack (not to mention saving many shipmates’ lives). But that’s not all Conter did in WWII, although that would have been enough:

Conter went to flight school after Pearl Harbor, earning his wings to fly PBY patrol bombers, which the Navy used to look for submarines and bomb enemy targets. He flew 200 combat missions in the Pacific with a “Black Cats” squadron, which conducted dive bombing at night in planes painted black.

In 1943, he and his crew were shot down in waters near New Guinea and had to avoid a dozen sharks. A sailor expressed doubt they would survive, to which Conter replied, “Baloney.”

“Don’t ever panic in any situation. Survive is the first thing you tell them. Don’t panic or you’re dead,” he said. They were quiet and treaded water until another plane came hours later and dropped them a lifeboat.

And Conter then went home after the war and tried to forget about the Navy and war, right? Wrong:

In the late 1950s, he was made the Navy’s first SERE officer — an acronym for survival, evasion, resistance and escape. He spent the next decade training Navy pilots and crew on how to survive if they’re shot down in the jungle and captured as prisoners of war. Some of his pupils used his lessons as POWs in Vietnam.

Conter retired in 1967 after 28 years in the Navy.

Of course, Conter was able to do all of this because of some kind of privilege he had in life, right? Wrong again:

Conter was born in Ojibwa, Wisconsin, on Sept. 13, 1921. His family later moved to Colorado where he walked five miles one way to school outside Denver. His house didn’t have running water so he tried out for the football team — less for a love of the sport and more because the players could take showers at school after practice.

He enlisted in the Navy after he turned 18, getting $17 a month and a hammock for his bunk at boot camp.

Even later in life, in remembering his fallen shipmates, Lou Conter was a hero:

In his later years, Conter became a fixture at annual remembrance ceremonies in Pearl Harbor that the Navy and the National Park Service jointly hosted on the anniversaries of the 1941 attack. When he lacked the strength to attend in person, he recorded video messages for those who gathered and watched remotely from his home in California.

In 2019, when he was 98, he said he liked going to remember those who lost their lives.

“It’s always good to come back and pay respect to them and give them the top honors that they deserve,” he said.

Though many treated the shrinking group of Pearl Harbor survivors as heroes, Conter refused the label.

“The 2,403 men that died are the heroes. And we’ve got to honor them ahead of everybody else. And I’ve said that every time, and I think it should be stressed,” Conter told The Associated Press in a 2022 interview at his California home.

Here is Lou Conter in his own words:

RIP Lou Conter. May we somehow live up to your example.

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Comments

Fair winds and following seas. Bravo Zulu, Mr. Conter.

E Howard Hunt | April 2, 2024 at 5:56 pm

And, on March 18, Wing Commander John Bell died, aged 100. He was the last surviving dambuster.

“End of an era” is correct. The numbers of surviving vets are dwindling daily. It’s sad to think that there are no more USS Arizona survivors left.
You, Sir, were a MAN. May you now forever rest in peace.

While stationed in Germany and in between rotations to the sandbox I had the privilege of meeting several WWII Veterans. They were uniformly humble, down to earth very pleasant men who seemed as jazzed up to meet some of this generations Combat Vets as we were to meet them. A group of 3 managed to evade their wives and go out drinking with a few us SR NCOs to share stories, tell tall tales and just enjoy comradery of veterans across the generations.

May This true American Hero rest in peace. God Bless him!

drsamherman | April 2, 2024 at 9:39 pm

Rest In Peace, Sir.

Awesome record. Salute!

Thank you for your service, sir.

Amazing man, amazing story.

My WWII veteran Dad would have been 100 years old last month. Salut! I truly miss them all

I went to a military funeral today at For Sam Houston in San Antonio, it was very touching, very emotional

All
Our veterans deserve such respect

RIP sir, what a hero

God bless him. Now he will get to see all his old shipmates again in heaven.