laststandonzombieisland

Born in September 1921 in Ojibwa, Wisconsin, Louis Anthony Conter enlisted in the Navy in November 1939 and, after training at RS San Diego, boarded his first ship– the mighty Pennsylvania-class dreadnought USS Arizona (Battleship No. 39)— in January 1940.

Then QM3/c Conter was aboard Arizona, moored on Battleship Row, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, on 7 December 1941.

As noted by USSArizona.org:

Louis Conter’s most vivid memory of December 7, 1941, came at 8:05am when a bomb hit the ammunition magazine located between Turrets I & II. The blast knocked him to the deck. Other sailors were blown off the side of the ship and into the water.

“Guys started coming out of the fire and we would lay them down on the deck because we didn’t want them jumping over the sides… When the Captain said ‘Abandon ship!’ we went into the lifeboats and started picking men out of the water and fire… When the second attack hit, we fought from the water.”

He spent the next few weeks helping to put out fires and recovering the bodies of his shipmates.

Conter would go on to flight school post-Arizona, and fly with the famed “Black Cats” of Patrol Squadron (VP) Eleven during which he was shot down twice and punched a shark to survive in the water until rescued and earning the DFC. He continued his Navy career, flying with CVG-102 from the USS Bon Homme Richard (CV 31), helping found the Navy’s SERE school in 1954, and retired in 1967 as an LCDR.

He was the last of 335 known survivors of the Arizona and passed on Monday, aged 102.

Fair Winds & Following Seas, LCDR Conter.