To this day, Lou Conter says he wasn't surprised when he saw the Japanese planes coming in. "We knew hat something was going to happen long before that; we'd been training for a year and a half."
On that morning, he was fortunately near the back of the ship when the bomb hit that destroyed the USS Arizona.
"The fire was all around the ship where the oil was," he remembered.
But, despite the flames and damage, he stayed aboard the ship for thirty minutes along with others attempting to rescue the wounded and burned sailors. "We got everybody into the motor launches, got them to the hospital and fought the fire until Tuesday.
In the next days, he returned to his stricken ship several times, going into the ship to retrieve bodies.
"I'm no hero. I don't believe myself as a hero, I just did my job and did what had to be done to protect America and the American flag," Conter said.
--GreGen
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