Lou Conter, last survivor of USS Arizona from Pearl Harbor attack, dies at 102

It was a day that will live in infamy. December 7, 1941. Veterans, active duty, and civilians know the story. Thousands of sailors, some sleeping, some on duty, all serving the Navy and stationed far from the mainland of the United States in beautiful and foreign island of Hawaii, which was not yet a state, when a surprise attack would launch the United States into World War II.

The survivors of that attack on the ships homeported in Pearl Harbor have slipped away over the decades since, and on Sunday, 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, moored in Pearl Harbor's "Battleship Row" on the morning of December 7, 1941, when Japanese carrier aircraft attacked, was hit by several bombs, one of which penetrated her forecastle and detonated her forward ammunition magazines. The resulting massive explosion wrecked the ship's forward hull, collapsing her forward superstructure and causing her to sink.

1,177 sailors and Marines stationed aboard the Arizona died in the 1941 attack—the battleship’s dead account for nearly half of those killed in the surprise attack.

Conter was a quartermaster, standing on the main deck of the Arizona as Japanese planes flew overhead at 7:55 a.m. on that Sunday. Morning colors had not yet been rendered when the assault began.

Stowed within the hull of the USS Arizona was more than 1 million pounds (450,000 kilograms) of gunpowder stored below. The explosion lifted the battleship 30 to 40 feet out of the water, sending sailors plunging into the harbor to escape the resulting fires.

Conter recounted that day in his autobiography “The Lou Conter Story,” working with other survivors to render aid to the injured, many who were suffering from traumatic injuries and burns. The sailors only abandoned ship when their senior surviving officer was sure they had rescued all those who were still alive.

The wreckage of the Arizona still lies in waters where she sank, with more than 900 sailors and Marines remaining entombed below. In the following months, much of her armament and topside structure was removed, with the two after triple 14" gun turrets being transferred to the Army for emplacement as coast defense batteries on Oahu.

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 where shot down in waters near New Guinea and had to avoid a dozen sharks, treading water for hours until a plane was able to drop a lifeboat.

“Don’t ever panic in any situation. Survive is the first thing you tell them. Don’t panic or you’re dead,” he said.

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 ten years training Navy pilots and crew on how to survive if they’re shot down in the jungle and captured as a prisoner of war. Some of his pupils used his lessons as POWs in Vietnam.

Conter retired in 1967 after 28 years in the Navy.

Born in Ojibwa, Wisconsin, on September 13, 1921, he and his family later moved to Colorado. 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 later enlisted in the Navy after he turned 18,

In the later years of his life, Conter became a fixture at annual remembrance ceremonies in Pearl Harbor on the anniversaries of the 1941 attack. When he was unable to attend in person, he would record video messages for those who gathered and watch remotely from his home in California.

“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.