HONOLULU – USS Arizona sailor Lou Conter lived via the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor regardless that his battleship exploded and sank after being pierced by aerial bombs.
That makes the now 101-year-old considerably of a star, particularly on the anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941, assault. Many name him and others within the nation’s dwindling pool of Pearl Harbor survivors heroes.
Conter rejects the characterization.
‘The 2,403 males that died are the heroes. And we have got to honor them forward of all people else. And I’ve mentioned that each time, and I feel it must be careworn,’ Conter mentioned in a latest interview at his Grass Valley, California, house north of Sacramento.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Navy and the National Park Service will host a remembrance ceremony at Pearl Harbor in honor of these killed.
FILE – The U.S. Marine Corp. fires a rifle salute on the eightieth Pearl Harbor Anniversary ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, in Honolulu, Dec. 7, 2021.
Last yr about 30 survivors and a few 100 different veterans of the warfare made the pilgrimage to the annual occasion. But the U.S. Navy and the National Park Service anticipate one or two survivors will probably attend in particular person this yr. Another 20 to 30 veterans of World War II are additionally anticipated to be there.
Conter will not be amongst them. He attended for a few years, most not too long ago in 2019. But his physician has advised him the five-hour flight, plus hours of ready at airports, is simply too strenuous for him now.
‘I’m occurring 102 now. It’s sort of onerous to fiddle,’ Conter mentioned.
Instead, he plans to observe a video feed of this yr’s 81st anniversary observance from house. He’s additionally recorded a message that will probably be performed for these attending.
Conter’s autobiography ‘The Lou Conter Story’ recounts how one of many Japanese bombs penetrated 5 metal decks on the Arizona and ignited greater than 1 million kilos of gunpowder and hundreds of kilos of ammunition.
‘The ship was consumed in a large fireball that seemed as if it engulfed every part from the mainmast ahead,’ he wrote.
FILE – A photograph of Pearl Harbor survivor Lou Conter, 101, as seen as a younger sailor, is displayed at his house in Grass Valley, Calif., Nov. 18, 2022.
He joined different survivors who had been tending to the injured, lots of whom had been blinded and badly burned. The sailors solely deserted ship when their senior surviving officer was positive they’d rescued all these nonetheless alive.
The Arizona’s 1,177 useless account for practically half the servicemen killed within the bombing. The battleship right this moment sits the place it sank 81 years in the past, with greater than 900 of its useless nonetheless entombed inside.
Conter wasn’t injured at Pearl Harbor, throughout World War II or the Korean War.
This yr’s remembrance ceremony is the primary to be open to the general public for the reason that 2019 ceremony. The pandemic pressured the adoption of strict public well being measures for the final two years.
David Kilton, the National Park Service’s chief of interpretation for Pearl Harbor, mentioned he is unsure how many individuals will attend however they’re anticipating between 2,000 to three,000 folks.
It will probably be held on the Pearl Harbor National Memorial guests middle, which overlooks the water and the white construction constructed to honor these killed on the Arizona.
Organizers have set a theme of ‘Everlasting Legacy’ for this yr’s ceremony, highlighting how fewer and fewer survivors stay.
FILE – USS Arizona Memorial, a part of the World War II Valor within the Pacific National Monument, in Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, adjoining to Honolulu.
‘We truthfully should know and be ready that finally we can’t have the flexibility to attach with their tales and have them with us anymore,’ Kilton mentioned. ‘And it is onerous to come back to grips with that actuality.’
Conter went to flight college after Pearl Harbor, incomes his wings to fly PBY patrol bombers, which the Navy used to search for submarines and bomb enemy targets. He flew 200 fight missions within the Pacific with a ‘Black Cats’ squadron, which carried out dive bombing at evening in planes painted black.
One evening in 1943, he and his crew needed to keep away from a dozen or so close by sharks after they had been shot down close to New Guinea.
When one sailor expressed doubt that they’d survive, Conter responded ‘baloney.’
‘Don’t ever panic in any state of affairs. Survive is the very first thing you inform them. Don’t panic otherwise you’re useless,’ he mentioned. They had been quiet and treaded water till one other airplane got here and dropped them a lifeboat hours later.
In the late Nineteen Fifties, he was made the Navy’s first SERE officer – which is an acronym for survival, evasion, resistance and escape. He spent the subsequent decade coaching Navy pilots and crew on tips on how to survive in the event that they’re shot down within the jungle and captured as a prisoner of warfare. Some of his pupils used his instruction to dwell via years as POWs in Vietnam.
These days, he spends his time going to his favourite breakfast spot twice per week and going out for Mexican meals each Friday evening. He enjoys visiting with associates and watching TV.
Conter hasn’t forgotten his shipmates. He mentioned he’d just like the navy to attempt to establish 85 Arizona sailors who had been buried as unknowns in a Honolulu cemetery after the warfare.
‘They ought to by no means quit on that difficulty. If they’re ever recognized, I’m positive their households would need to bury them at house or wherever, however they need to by no means quit on making an attempt to establish them,’ he mentioned.