With the death of Ken Potts (photo, left) at age 102 on Friday, April 21, 2023 (read story here), Lou Conter (photo, below right), 101, is the only remaining USS Arizona crew member from the Pearl Harbor attack who’s still living.
Potts, a crane operator, was on Ford Island when the battleship blew up from a bomb hit on its forward powder magazine. He boarded a boat and helped rescue several sailors from the water. He worked at Pearl Harbor, in the port director’s office, for the rest of the war (see story here).
Conter, who stayed in the Navy, went to flight school and flew PBYs in the Pacific War, and later became a survival instructor (see story here). He also served in the Korean War, and later in life wrote a book about his military experiences that was published in 2021 (get it here).
He’s now the very last person who remembers what it was like being aboard the USS Arizona on the morning of December 7, 1941.