Louis Anthony Conter

Rescued shipmates from the burning wreckage at Pearl Harbor.

Louis Anthony Conter was born at Ojibwa, Wisconsin, on 13 September 1921. He enlisted in the Navy in 1939 and was a quartermaster third class aboard USS Arizona when Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. After the battleship exploded, he helped badly burned and wounded shipmates, restrained men from jumping into burning water and assisted their evacuation. In the days afterward he helped recover bodies from the wreck until diving became too dangerous.

Conter entered flight training at Pensacola in 1942 and became an enlisted naval aviation pilot. With the Black Cat flying boats of Patrol Squadron 11 he flew combat and rescue missions in the southwest Pacific. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for flights that helped rescue more than two hundred Australians trapped by Japanese forces in New Guinea. He also received the Navy Commendation Medal. He survived two aircraft losses in 1943, one caused by Japanese fire and another by friendly fire during a rescue operation.

After World War II he left active duty and remained in the Naval Reserve. Recalled for the Korean War, he served as an air intelligence officer aboard USS Bon Homme Richard and flew twenty-nine combat missions in the AD Skyraider before intelligence officers were prohibited from flying over enemy territory. Afterward he attended Army special operations training and helped establish the Navy's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape program. He also carried out intelligence duties during the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

Conter retired in December 1967 as a lieutenant commander after a naval career spanning twenty-eight years, including reserve service and repeated active-duty assignments. In civilian life he shared his experiences at veterans' ceremonies, schools and Pearl Harbor commemorations. His memoir appeared in 2021. He died at Grass Valley, California, on 1 April 2024, aged 102, the last living survivor of Arizona's crew from the attack. Navy personnel and Marines provided military honors at his funeral later that month.