We're going a little outside Alabama here, but it's a moment, and we have so many local and family connections to the military and World War II that I didn't want it to slip through the cracks.
The Associated Press is reporting the passing of the last living survivor of the USS Arizona, which was sank during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
About half of the fatalities during that attack were service members aboard that ship. It lost 1,177 sailors and Marines while a little more than 300 survived. The Arizona still lies where it sank, with more than 900 bodies still inside.
Conter's death leaves 19 living survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack out of the 87,000 military personnel stationed on Oahu, according to historians.
Conter's close calls weren't over after Pearl Harbor. He earned his wings and flew combat missions in the Pacific. In 1943 his plane was shot down, and he and his crew treaded water and fought off sharks until they were rescued.
He was born in Wisconsin and passed away at his home in Grass Valley, California. Lou Conter was 102 years old.
