Lou Conter Death, Obituary Unavailable – Last survivor of USS Arizona battleship that exploded during Pearl Harbor attack dies. Louann Daley, his daughter, informed the Associated Press that 102-year-old Lou Conter died of congestive heart failure in his California home on Monday. In the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Arizona quartermaster Conter stood on the main deck as Japanese planes roared overhead.
One bomb breached steel decks 13 minutes into the combat and ignited almost 1 million pounds (450,000 kg) of gunpowder below, Conter said. “Guys were running out of the fire and trying to jump over the sides,” he claimed. “Oil all over the sea was burning.” His memoirs “The Lou Conter Story” describes how he and other survivors helped blinded and burned victims. The men abandoned ship once their senior remaining officer confirmed they had saved everyone.
Conter graduated from flight school after Pearl Harbor to fly Navy PBY patrol bombers to find submarines and bomb targets. He flew 200 Pacific combat missions with a “Black Cats” squadron that dive bombed at night in black planes. After being shot down near New Guinea in 1943, he and his crew avoided 12 sharks. Conter answered, “baloney.” to a sailor’s doubts about their survival.
Keep calm in every scenario. First, tell them to survive. “Don’t panic or die,” he added. They treaded water quietly until another jet dropped a lifeboat hours later. He became the Navy’s first SERE officer in the late 1950s. He spent the following decade teaching Navy pilots and crew how to survive a jungle shootout and POW arrest. As Vietnam POWs, some of his students applied his lessons.
After 28 years in the Navy, Conter resigned in 1967. In his latter years, Conter attended the Navy and National Park Service’s annual Pearl Harbor commemorative ceremony. He recorded video messages for the crowd and watched from California when he was too weak to attend.
He enjoyed remembering the dead at 98 in 2019. “It’s always good to come back and pay respect to them and give them the top honors that they deserve,” stated. Many called the dwindling Pearl Harbor survivors heroes, but Conter disagreed. “2,403 dead guys are heroes. We must honor them before others. “I’ve said that every time, and I think it should be emphasized,” Conter told The Associated Press in a 2022 interview at his California home.
