Article Summary –
Lou Conter, the last living survivor of the USS Arizona battleship that was attacked during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died at 102. After the attack, Conter went to flight school, flew 200 combat missions in the Pacific, and later became the Navy’s first SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) officer, training Navy pilots and crew. In his later years, he consistently attended remembrance ceremonies for the Pearl Harbor attack, refusing the label of hero and insisting that those who died were the real heroes.
Lou Conter, Last Living Survivor of USS Arizona, Passes Away at 102
Lou Conter, the last living survivor of the USS Arizona battleship devastated in the Pearl Harbor attack, died at 102. Conter passed away at his Grass Valley, California home due to congestive heart failure, according to his daughter, Louann Daley. The USS Arizona was one of the hardest hit during the 1941 attack, losing 1,177 sailors and Marines, nearly half of the fatalities.
A quartermaster on the main deck, Conter witnessed the bombing first-hand. He described a bomb breaking through the steel decks and setting off over one million pounds of stored gunpowder. The resulting explosion lifted the battleship out of the water and set it ablaze.
During an oral history interview stored at the Library of Congress, Conter relayed the horrifying scene of men running and jumping overboard to escape the burning ship. He detailed how he and other survivors aided the injured before abandoning the ship, ensuring all survivors were rescued first.
The wreckage of the Arizona, with over 900 sailors and Marines entombed inside, remains where it sank. Conter was one of the 335 crew members who survived. Following Pearl Harbor, Conter went on to fly PBY patrol bombers and conducted dive bombing at night with the “Black Cats” squadron.
Conter later became the Navy’s first SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) officer, and spent a decade training Navy personnel on survival skills if shot down and captured. Retiring in 1967 after 28 years in the Navy, Conter played a significant part in annual Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremonies.
In his later years, Conter frequently honored the memory of his fallen comrades, refusing to accept the label of hero for himself. He stated in several interviews that the true heroes were the 2,403 men who died in the Pearl Harbor attack.
With Conter’s passing, there are now only 19 survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack still alive. His daughter expressed relief that he did not suffer in his final days and was surrounded by family. He is also survived by his son Tony, stepson Ron Fudge, and several grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews.
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