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April 1 (UPI) -- Lou Conter, the last living survivor aboard the USS Arizona during the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that pulled the United States into World War II, has died at the age of 102. Conter died Monday morning while in hospice at his home in Grass Valley, Calif., according to his family and the U.S. Navy.
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Conter was a 20-year-old quartermaster when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He was one of only 335 officers and crewmen who survived aboard the Arizona. A total of 1,177 crewmen lost their lives on the Arizona, while 2,403 Americans were killed in the attack.
"It was five minutes to eight, and the first plane came across," Conter previously told KCRA 3. "There was no time to do anything. It happened so fast."
"They were dive bombing, and they were right down the ship's edge. We didn't have time to look up and see what was coming. They were already right down at the water's edge. It lasted for about 40 minutes," Conter said.
"We took a 50-60-hundred-pound bomb alongside the number two turret. It went through five decks in the forward lower handling room and blew the power up there for the number one and number two turret, and the whole bow came up out of the water."
Conter helped survivors who had been blinded and burned, before being ordered to abandon ship. He was uninjured.
"Guys were coming out of the fire, and we were just grabbing them and laying them down," Conter added. "They were real bad. You would pick them up by the bodies, and the skin would come off your hands."
Conter attended Navy flight school and went on to serve in three wars. He flew in 200 missions as a pilot and also survived being shot down twice.
After retiring from the Navy as a lieutenant commander in 1967, he became a real estate broker and developer in Los Angeles. His wife, Valerie, died in 2016. He had six children from two previous marriages.
Conter regularly attended annual memorial services at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. He was among three survivors in 2020, when Pearl Harbor veteran Donald Stratton died at his home in Colorado Springs at the age of 97. Last year, Ken Potts -- who was also 102 -- died in Provo, Utah.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, "less than 1% of the 16.1 million Americans who served during World War II are still with us today." They are dying at a rate of 131 each day and as most are in their 90s or older, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans says it is working to preserve their stories.
Conter had planned to make one more trip to Hawaii in December for last year's Pearl Harbor memorial services, but did not have the strength to travel.
"They call a lot of us heroes, and I've always said we are not the heroes," Conter once told KCRA.
"Heroes are the ones right there that day that lost their lives. They gave everything up. We got back to the States. We got married. We had kids and grandkids. We are still here. They were lost forever right then and there."
