Lou Conter, final survivor of USS Arizona assault in Pearl Harbor, dies at 102
Lou Conter was on the battleship in December 1941 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor drawing the U.S. into World Conflict Two. Conter, a Navy quartermaster, was on the principle deck when the bombing started.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The final recognized survivor of the assault on the united statesArizona in Pearl Harbor has died on the age of 102. Lou Conter was on the battleship in December of 1941 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, drawing the U.S. into World Conflict II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke to Congress the next day.
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FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT: The assault yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has prompted extreme harm to American naval and navy forces.
MARTÍNEZ: Near 1,200 sailors and Marines on the Arizona have been killed.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Conter, a Navy quartermaster, was on the principle deck when the bombing started. On this 2018 interview with the American Veterans Middle, he recalled how one bomb pierced the ship’s metal decks and set off an enormous retailer of gunpowder beneath.
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LOU CONTER: There have been 1,000,000 kilos of powder that blew up. And that is within the photos you all see of it. And the bow happened 30, 40 toes out of the water, and it fell straight again down.
MARTÍNEZ: He stated guys have been operating out of the hearth, and he was instructed to knock them unconscious if essential.
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CONTER: As a result of in the event that they jumped over the aspect, they might get burned to demise within the fireplace. So we laid 15 or 16 of them down on the deck there that have been popping out burned.
MARTÍNEZ: Conter went on to flight faculty and flew some 200 fight missions within the Pacific. He retired in 1967 after 28 years within the Navy.
MARTIN: Lou Conter died yesterday at his dwelling in Grass Valley, Calif.
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