Last Survivor of USS Arizona Dies at 102

[98valk]

don't know why two different ages are reported.

https://ijr.com/last-survivor-of-uss-arizona-dies-at-102/

""Lou Conter, 101, died Monday at his home in Grass Valley, California, as a result of congestive heart failure, his daughter, Louann Daley said, according to ABC News. Daley and her two brothers were with Conter when he died.""

""“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,” ABC News reported.

Conter said one bomb went through steel decks 13 minutes into the battle and set off more than 1 million pounds of gunpowder stored below, per the outlet.

“Guys were running out of the fire and trying to jump over the sides,” Conter said. “Oil all over the sea was burning.”

His autobiography “The Lou Conter Story” told how he joined other survivors in tending to the injured — many who were blinded and badly burned.

“The sailors only abandoned ship when their senior surviving officer was sure they had rescued all those still alive,” according to ABC News.""

""Conter went to flight school after Pearl Harbor and 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 were shot down in water near New Guinea and needed to avoid sharks to stay alive. When one sailor doubted the group would survive, Conter replied, “baloney.”

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

They remained quiet and treaded water until another plane came hours later and dropped a lifeboat, per the outlet.

Conter retired in 1967 after 28 years in the Navy.

When he was close to death, he told his family he loved them, thanked them for being with him and taking care of him at home.

“I’m glad he’s at peace. I’m glad he didn’t suffer. I know when he transitioned over, he had so many people there waiting for him – his wife Val, who he loved dearly,” Daley said.

Currently, there are 19 survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack still living, according to Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.

About 87,000 military personnel were on Oahu when the attack occurred, according to a rough estimate compiled by military historian J. Michael Wenger.""

[Jersey mike]

What can really be said about this other than thank you, God Bless him and may he rest easy and in eternal peace.

[f6john]

May God bless everyone who has lost their lives defending this country. The ultimate sacrifice is a bill that can never be repaid, but it can be honored by our actions and our efforts to make America a place they can be proud and honored to have had a made such a sacrifice for its future.

[carolinarider09]

Thank you for your service.  Sailor, Rest Your Oars, We Have the Watch.




Picture from my stay in Hawaii, 1972 - 1973. SSBN-599 Blue

[old2soon]

         Going Strictly of "memory" here The Black Cats flew the PBY amphib aircraft. And those Were Very Dangerous missions. MEN and WOMEN from that time drew on Serious Amounts of Inner Strength. Far Too Many younglings today have NO IDEA how close AMERICA came to either speaking Japanese or/and German for what could have been the new national languages!  YES it Was THAT CLOSE in the beginning the axis powers had AMERICA on the ropes. THANK YOU SIR For My FREEDOMS!  May You FOREVER Rest in Peace.  Fair winds and following seas. If you've ever been to Pearl Harbor you KNOW!

[Jess from VA]

THIS,


BEGET THIS. 

[carolinarider09]

Truth!!!

I often wonder how it would have planned out (no pun in tended) without the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 

[Willow]

The Japanese (at the time) wanted to expand to control the Pacific (and China and Korea).  They had no real intention of territorizing the United States mainland but the U.S. was their primary competition in the Pacific.  They would have, if they could, possibly taken Alaska and certainly Hawaii, the Philippines, and other U.S. controlled Pacific islands.

The atomic bomb was not so much the result (direct) of the Pearl Harbor attack but was the choice that U.S. strategists made to avoid the overwhelming loss of life, American and Japanese, resulting from an invasion of the Japanese homeland.  Okinawa probably loomed large in cementing that decision.

[f6john]

It is notable that the memory of those two bombs have kept them at bay for so long. Hopefully it stays that way for another 3/4 century at least.

[98valk]

The Japanese (at the time) wanted to expand to control the Pacific (and China and Korea).  They had no real intention of territorizing the United States mainland but the U.S. was their primary competition in the Pacific.  They would have, if they could, possibly taken Alaska and certainly Hawaii, the Philippines, and other U.S. controlled Pacific islands.

The atomic bomb was not so much the result (direct) of the Pearl Harbor attack but was the choice that U.S. strategists made to avoid the overwhelming loss of life, American and Japanese, resulting from an invasion of the Japanese homeland.  Okinawa probably loomed large in cementing that decision.

my Dad was station on the Amphibious ship USS LC(FF)-368 Landing Craft, Flotilla Flagship one of the troop landing ships. His ships were called The "Waterbug Navy" by an Admiral looking down on them from his battleship while they were scurry back and forth from the main ships to the beach heads,   They were smaller ships that actually went up onto the beach head.  He told me his fleet was sitting out in the Pacific waiting for further orders when the message came across that Japan had surrendered. He didn't know at the time but his fleet was part of the Japan mainland invasion force.

[Jess from VA]

The Japanese (at the time) wanted to expand to control the Pacific (and China and Korea).  They had no real intention of territorizing the United States mainland but the U.S. was their primary competition in the Pacific.  They would have, if they could, possibly taken Alaska and certainly Hawaii, the Philippines, and other U.S. controlled Pacific islands.

The atomic bomb was not so much the result (direct) of the Pearl Harbor attack but was the choice that U.S. strategists made to avoid the overwhelming loss of life, American and Japanese, resulting from an invasion of the Japanese homeland.  Okinawa probably loomed large in cementing that decision.

I agree Carl, they thought it possible they could lose a million men in a full invasion of the Islands (land war).

But it was also a deserved and poetic payback for Pearl Harbor.   Both times.

And you can't say the (surprise) attack on Pearl harbor to start the war didn't ultimately lead to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end it (during declared war).

[old2soon]

The Japanese (at the time) wanted to expand to control the Pacific (and China and Korea).  They had no real intention of territorizing the United States mainland but the U.S. was their primary competition in the Pacific.  They would have, if they could, possibly taken Alaska and certainly Hawaii, the Philippines, and other U.S. controlled Pacific islands.

The atomic bomb was not so much the result (direct) of the Pearl Harbor attack but was the choice that U.S. strategists made to avoid the overwhelming loss of life, American and Japanese, resulting from an invasion of the Japanese homeland.  Okinawa probably loomed large in cementing that decision.

my Dad was station on the Amphibious ship USS LC(FF)-368 Landing Craft, Flotilla Flagship one of the troop landing ships. His ships were called The "Waterbug Navy" by an Admiral looking down on them from his battleship while they were scurry back and forth from the main ships to the beach heads,   They were smaller ships that actually went up onto the beach head.  He told me his fleet was sitting out in the Pacific waiting for further orders when the message came across that Japan had surrendered. He didn't know at the time but his fleet was part of the Japan mainland invasion force.

     My 1/2 Brother Army-Moms side-would have been on one of the 1st landing craft in the 1st wave. Instead he was Occupation Forces Japan. BUT I lost an Uncle-Dads Brother-I never met at Normandy. WWII affected a Lot of Famlies.

[Serk]

Respect to Lou Conter, the last of some very great folks.

On the discussion of cause and effect, while Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren't the direct result of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, had that surprise attack never happened those bombings also might not have been necessary. (Although it's conceiveable, even likely, that given the pieces on the chess board of the planet at that time The Empire of Japan would have made a move against us, or us them, at some point regardless)

But... I see it kinda like this, is whatever happened to the owner of these fingers in the seconds after this image was taken (Faked) a direct result of the actions presumabely taken in this photo?