Lieutenant Commander Lou Conter, Last Survivor of the USS Arizona, Passes Away Aged 102

[Lee]

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On Monday, Lieutenant Commander Lou Conter, the last surviving member of the crew of the battleship USS Arizona during the Pearl Harbor attack, passed away in his Grass Valley, California home. Commander Conter was 102 and died of congestive heart failure, surrounded by his family.

Conter passed away on Monday at his home in Grass Valley, California, following congestive heart failure, his daughter, Louann Daley said, adding she was beside him along with two of her brothers, James and Jeff.

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 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. 

Conter recalled how one bomb penetrated steel decks 13 minutes into the battle and set off more than 1 million pounds (450,000 kilograms) of gunpowder stored below. 

Conter went on to serve in the Navy throughout the war and for many years afterward.

 

Read more.  https://redstate.com/wardclark/2024/04/02/lieutenant-commander-lou-conter-last-survivor-of-the-uss-arizona-passes-away-aged-102-n2172206