(by: Alfred Acenas, Hawaii-Pacific Bureau, Eagle News)
With the passing late last week of USS Arizona survivor Howard Kenton “Ken” Potts, aged 102, Louis Conter is now the only living veteran of the ill-fated battleship who lost 1,177 men during the Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
Lou Conter was born in September 1921 in Ojibwa, Wisconsin. At 18, he enlisted in the Navy and completed basic training in San Diego, California. In 1940 as a young Quartermaster, Third Class, Conter reported for duty at the Arizona.
While getting ready for his day shift at 7:45am on that quiet Sunday morning, Conter did not realize the few minutes thereafter would eventually force his country into World War II.
At exactly 8:09am, a Japanese armor-piercing bomb hit one million pounds (almost 454 thousand kilograms) of gunpowder stored in the hull of Arizona. As the ship burst into flames, Conter scrambled to save as many of his fellow servicemen as possible. Spending around 35 minutes on the ship, Conter and other volunteers bravely managed to save about 20 people while also securing the quarterdeck.
Days after the attack, Conter joined a rescue operation to recover bodies from the ship. After diligently searching, it was apparent that no one remained alive; and the risk of the rescue operation became too high to continue.
Upon his reassignment, the battle-hardened sailor entered flight school and served as a pilot with Navy Squadron VP-11. Despite that Conter himself was shot down twice, his team successfully rescued over 200 Australian coastwatchers in New Guinea.
Louis Conter served again in combat during the Korean War as an air intelligence officer from May through December 1951.
Conter also served with distinction on the home front by helping establish the Navy’s SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) program and serving as the Navy’s first SERE officer. He opened more SERE schools around the United States and even one in Germany.
In December 1967, after 28 years of military service, Lou Conter retired from the Navy as a lieutenant commander and chose to settle in California.
Eagle News had the privilege to interview the highly-decorated Naval officer, along with other war veterans, during their visit to Hawaii to take part in the 75th anniversary commemoration of the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 2016.
During the interview, Louis Conter demonstrated his mental sharpness in recalling events at Pearl Harbor and other conflicts thereafter.
“We knew war was coming. Everybody went to their stations. They did their job and didn’t have time to think about it,” said the now-101-year old Conter. “That’s the way it was in World War II. That’s why we won World War II.”
The said interview as well as the entire news report is available online at
The deliberate attack that lasted less than 90 minutes left the U.S. with 2,403 lives lost plus an additional 1,178 personnel injured. A total of 21 vessels were destroyed or sunken.
Eagle News Service
