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 , has died at age 102.
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.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.
“Guys were running out of the fire and trying to jump over the sides,” Conter said. “Oil all over the sea was burning.” So Conter was a true hero to just survive the attack . But that’s not all Conter did in WWII, although that would have been enough: “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.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.
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