Lou Conter, the last living survivor of the USS Arizona battleship, which sank during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died at his northern California home, surrounded by loved ones, according to reports. He was 102.
Conter, then a 20-year-old U.S. Navy quartermaster, was aboard the Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941, when it was bombed, at the Oahu, Hawaii, naval base, setting off World War II.
More than 1,100 crew members died in the attack that killed 2,403 Americans. Conter was among the 335 sailors who survived, according to CBS News.
In the midst of the chaos, he helped rescue fellow sailors, recover bodies, and put out fires aboard the burning battleship, according to his 2021 memoir, The Lou Conter Story: From U.S.S. Arizona Survivor to Unsung American Hero, The New York Times reported.
"The ship was consumed in a giant fireball," he wrote.
The bodies of more than 900 sailors remain trapped in the Arizona, which remains in the same spot it sank, according to the Associated Press.
Conter went on to become a pilot in the Navy and serve in over 200 combat missions. In 1943, his plane was shot down near the waters of New Guinea, the outlet reported. He survived floating several hours in the shark-infested ocean until he and his crew were rescued.
After 28 years, Conter retired as a lieutenant commander in 1967, according to USA TODAY.
"I'm glad he's at peace. I'm glad he didn't suffer. I know when he transitioned over, he had so many people there waiting for him - his wife Val, who he loved dearly," his daughter, Louann Daley told the AP.
Valerie – his wife of 45 years – died in 2016.
He will be buried next to her in Grass Valley, California, Daley said.
