GRASS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA—The Associated Press released news this week of the passing of Lou Conter, a 102-year-old World War II veteran, and USS Arizona Survivor. After ten decades on Earth, Conter earned his rest and then some, but his passage marks the sad end of an era that those remaining in mortality will never get back.

Many readers will already be familiar with the events of Dec. 7, 1941, but for those who served aboard the USS Arizona, that day holds a different meaning. Of the thousands of people who lost their lives that day due to the attacks from the Japanese, almost half of those casualties came from the Arizona alone. The staggering loss of 1,177 aboard the ship makes the fact that anyone survived all the more amazing. 

Over the years, USS Arizona survivors, like other World War II veterans, have been slowly dying out, some to continued service in the armed forces, some to disease, and many to old age. Though not unexpected, with each passing, one more eye-witness to the events of that day, and those events are gone, and in the case of many, their stories are lost forever. 

Among the survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor, veterans of the USS Arizona held a special distinction. Born of a desire to rest with the remainder of their shipmates still interred in the wreckage, Arizona survivors have had the option since 1982 to have their remains returned to their ship in a solemn ceremony officiated by the National Park Service, and the United States Navy. 

As of July 2020, 44 veterans have returned to the ship years after their service, to join their shipmates, and while, at the time of going to print, there is no word if Conter chose this honor, he is the last who will have ever had that option. Other Pearl Harbor survivors, however, can still elect to have their ashes spread in the harbor itself. 

Lou Conter joins the ranks of his other shipmates, ever on watch aboard the Arizona, still in the harbor, resting where she settled on the seabed, 83 years ago. Though Conter himself, and others like him may not now be able to share their stories first-hand, it behooves the generations that are to follow to ensure that these stories and the men that shared them are never forgotten.