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Lou Conter, the final residing Pearl Harbor survivor who was aboard the USS Arizona when it exploded and sank, died Monday. He was 102.Conter, who was a quartermaster on Dec. 7, 1941, was on the ship’s most important deck when Japanese planes flew overhead and started their assault on the Hawaii naval base.Conter’s illustrious profession would proceed lengthy after Pearl Harbor. A educated pilot and member of a “Black Cats” squadron, Conter was additionally the Navy’s first survival, evasion, resistance and escape — or SERE — officer. He retired in 1967.
The final residing survivor of the USS Arizona battleship that exploded and sank in the course of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor has died. Lou Conter was 102.
Conter handed away at his house Monday in Grass Valley, California following congestive coronary heart failure, his daughter, Louann Daley mentioned.
The Arizona misplaced 1,177 sailors and Marines within the 1941 assault that launched the USA into World Struggle II. The battleship’s useless account for almost half of these killed within the shock assault.
PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR ABOARD THE USS ARIZONA REMEMBERS ATTACK 79 YEARS LATER
Conter was a quartermaster, standing on the principle deck of the Arizona as Japanese planes flew overhead at 7:55 a.m. on Dec. 7 that 12 months. Sailors had been simply starting to hoist colours or increase the flag when the assault started.
Conter recalled how one bomb penetrated metal decks 13 minutes into the battle and set off greater than 1 million kilos of gunpowder saved under.
The explosion lifted the battleship 30 to 40 toes out of the water, he mentioned throughout a 2008 oral historical past interview saved on the Library of Congress. The whole lot was on hearth from the mainmast ahead, he mentioned.
“Guys had been operating out of the hearth and attempting to leap over the perimeters,” Conter mentioned. “Oil all around the sea was burning.”
His autobiography “The Lou Conter Story” recounts how he joined different survivors in tending to the injured, a lot of them blinded and badly burned. The sailors solely deserted ship when their senior surviving officer was positive they’d rescued all these nonetheless alive.
The rusting wreckage of the Arizona nonetheless lies in waters the place it sank. Greater than 900 sailors and Marines stay entombed inside.
FILE – Pearl Harbor survivor Lou Conter, 101, is seen at his house in Grass Valley, Calif., Nov. 18, 2022. Conter, the final residing survivor of the USS Arizona battleship that exploded and sank in the course of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, died on Monday, April 1, 2024, following congestive coronary heart failure, his daughter mentioned. He was 102. (AP Picture/Wealthy Pedroncelli, File)
Conter went to flight faculty after Pearl Harbor, incomes his wings to fly PBY patrol bombers, which the Navy used to search for submarines and bomb enemy targets. He flew 200 fight missions within the Pacific with a “Black Cats” squadron, which carried out dive bombing at night time in planes painted black.
In 1943, he and his crew had been shot down in waters close to New Guinea and needed to keep away from a dozen sharks. A sailor expressed doubt they’d survive, to which Conter replied, “baloney.”
“Don’t ever panic in any scenario. Survive is the very first thing you inform them. Don’t panic otherwise you’re useless,” he mentioned. They had been quiet and treaded water till one other aircraft got here hours later and dropped them a lifeboat.
Within the late Nineteen Fifties, he was made the Navy’s first SERE officer — an acronym for survival, evasion, resistance and escape. He spent the subsequent decade coaching Navy pilots and crew on learn how to survive in the event that they’re shot down within the jungle and captured as a prisoner of struggle. A few of his pupils used his classes as POWs in Vietnam.
Conter retired in 1967 after 28 years within the Navy.
Conter was born in Ojibwa, Wisconsin, on Sept. 13, 1921. His household later moved to Colorado the place he walked 5 miles one method to faculty exterior Denver. His home didn’t have operating water so he tried out for the soccer staff — much less for a love of the game and extra as a result of the gamers may take showers at college after observe.
He enlisted within the Navy after he turned 18, getting $17 a month and a hammock for his bunk at boot camp.
In his later years, Conter grew to become a fixture at annual remembrance ceremonies in Pearl Harbor that the Navy and the Nationwide Park Service collectively hosted on the anniversaries of the 1941 assault. When he lacked the power to attend in particular person, he recorded video messages for individuals who gathered and watched remotely from his house in California.
In 2019, when he was 98, he mentioned he favored going to recollect those that misplaced their lives.
“It’s at all times good to come back again and pay respect to them and provides them the highest honors that they deserve,” he mentioned.
Although many handled the shrinking group of Pearl Harbor survivors as heroes, Conter refused the label.
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“The two,403 males that died are the heroes. And we’ve obtained to honor them forward of everyone else. And I’ve mentioned that each time, and I believe it must be careworn,” Conter informed The Related Press in a 2022 interview at his California house.
Lou Conter, final residing Pearl Harbor survivor aboard USS Arizona, useless at 102
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