USS Arizona Survivor Lou Conter is 101-- Part 2

On Wednesday, December 7, the U.S. Navy and the National Park service will host a remembrance ceremony at Pearl Harbor in honor of those killed.

Last year about 30 survivors and some 100 other veterans of the war made the pilgrimage to the annual event.  But, they only anticipate one or two survivors will likely attend this year's event in person.  Another  20-30 veterans of World War II are also expected to be there.

Lou Conter won't be among them, however.  He attended for many years, most recently in 2019.  But his doctor has told him the five-hour flight, plus hours of waiting in airports, is too strenuous for him now.

"I'm going to be 102 now.  It's kind of hard to mess around,"  Conter said.

Instead, he plans to watch a video feed of this year's 81st anniversary observance from home.  He's also recorded a message that will be played for those attending.

--GreGen

Life After Auschwitz-- Part 1: The 75th Anniversary of Its Liberation

From the January 26, 2020, Chicago Tribune by Markus Schreiber and Kirsten Grieshaber.  "Life after Auschwitz:  Survivors to unite 75 years after liberation to visit horrific symbol of Holocaust."

Oswiecim, Poland.  On January 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland.  The Germans had already fled westward, leaving behind the bodies of prisoners who had been shot and thousands of sick and starving survivors.

The Soviet troops also found gas chambers and crematoria that the Germans had blown up before fleeing in an attempt to hide evidence of their mass killings.

But the genocide was too massive to hide.

Today, the site of Auschwitz-Birkenau endures as the leading symbol of the terror of the Holocaust.  Its iconic status is such that every year it registers a record number of visitors -- 2.3 million last year alone.

--GreGen

Okinawa Marks 77th Anniversary-- Part 2

Many in Okinawa are worried about the growing development of Japanese missile defense and amphibious capabilities on outer islands that are close to hotspots like Taiwan.

At a ceremony marking the June 23, 1945, end of the battle, about 300 attendees in Okinawa, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other officials offered as moment of silence and placed chrysanthemums for the war dead.  The number of attendants was scaled down because of coronavirus worries.

At the ceremony in Itoman City on Okinawa's main island, Gov. Denny Tamaki spoke of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying the destruction of tons, buildings and local culture, as well as the Ukrainians constant fear, "remind us of our memory of the ground battle on Okinawa that embroiled citizens 77 years ago."

"We are struck by unspeakable shock," he said.

Tamaki also vowed to continue efforts to abolish nuclear weapons and renounce war "in order to never let Okinawa become abattlefield."

--GreGen

Remembering D-Day, 78 Years Later-- Part 4: To Not Be Forgotten

Many visitors this year came to see the monuments marking the key moments of the fight and to show their gratitude to the soldiers.  World War II history enthusiasts dressed  in wartime uniforms were seen in jeeps and military vehicles on the small roads of Normandy.

Greg Jensen, 51,  came with his 20-year-old daughter from Dallas.  On Saturday they visited the  Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial overlooking Omaha Beach.

"It took a moment just to hold the sand and you think, gosh, the blood that was spilled to give me that moment and the freedom to hold that sand," he said.  "That was vey emotional for me."

"I hope a lot of this younger generation is watching because we can't forget what happened 78 years ago," Jensen said, especially thinking of the war in Ukraine.

Andy Hamilton, a 57-year-old retired police officer, came on holiday with his family, including his two 8-year-old grandsons, from Shropshire, England.

"We're now showing our respects of the sites here and to give the grandchildren a sense of what  World War II was like .. and the amount of people that had given their lives to sacrifice for the freedom of everyone," he said.

On D-Day,  Allied troops landed  on the beaches code-named Omaha, Utah, Sword, Juno and Gold, carried there by 7,000 boats.  On that single day, 4,414 Allied soldiers lost their lives, 2,501 of them were Americans.  More than 5,000 were wounded.  On the German side, several thousand were killed and wounded.

--GreGen

Remembering D-Day, 78 Years Later-- Part 3: Working the Communications

Meanwhile, on the British side of the English Channel, then 17-year-old Mary Scott was working at the communications  center in Portsmouth, listening to the coded messages coming from the front line and passing them on as part of operations in Utah, Omaha, Juno, Sword and Gold beaches.

"The war was in my ears," she recalled, describing the  radio machine she operated with levers.

"When they (communications officers) had to respond to my messages and they lifted their lever, you heard all the sounds of the men on the beaches:  bombs, machine guns, men shouting, screaming."

Scott who will soon turn 96, said she got very "emotional" when arriving in Normandy Saturday on a trip organized by  the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans.  She was in tears seeing the D-Day beaches.

"Suddenly I thought maybe some of those young men I spoke to... that they had died," she said.

The symbol is even stringer across the Channel.  Queen Elizabeth II, who served in World War II as an army driver and mechanic is celebrating  her 70 years on the throne.

"Women were involved," Scott stressed.  "I mean, I'm enormously  proud to have been a minute part of Operation Overlord.

Her face turned to sadness when she mentioned the war in the Ukraine.

"Why can't we learn from past experiences?   Why can't we do that?  What's wrong with us?" she asked.  "War should teach us something but it never penetrates for very long."

GreGen

Remembering D-Day, 78 Years Ago-- Part 1

From the June 5, 2022, Wilmington News Journal "World War II veterans honored a day before D-Day anniversary" by Sylvie Corbet and Jeff Schaeffer, AP.

More than 20 British World War II veterans gathered Sunday near Pegasus Bridge in northwestern France, one of the first sites liberated by Allied forces from German control, for commemorations honoring the nearly 160,000  troops from Britain, the United States, Canada, and other countries who landed on Normandy June 6, 1944.

Veterans, their families and French and international visitors braved the rainy weather to take part in a series of events this weekend and in Monday for then78th anniversary of D-Day.

This year's D-Day anniversary comes after two consecutive years of COVID-19 pandemic  restricted or deterred visitors.

Dozens of U.S. veterans were also attending events in the region, ahead of Monday's ceremony at the  Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial,  home to the gravesites of 9,386 who died fighting on D-Day and the operations which followed.

--GreGen

It Was 80 Years Ago-- Part 2: The Attack on Pearl Harbor

It was 80 years ago that the United States was suddenly attacked at Pearl Harbor.

In commemoration of it, this blog will be about the event this whole week.  I will also write about it in six of my other seven blogs.

Judging from the number of alerts I have been getting on Yahoo this past week, it is not something that has been forgotten.  This I am extremely happy about.

I was born ten years after the attack in 1951.

And, I worry that the younger generations will forget about it or not have the opportunity to learn about it.

Anyway, this is my small attempt to avoid this happening.

The GreGen I use as a sign off is short for Greatest Generation.  Though I am not a member of it, I sure respect them for all that they did.  Living through both the Great depression and then World War II.  That was something.

Not Forgetting Whatsoever.  --GreGen

80 Years On, the Told and Untold Stories of Pearl Harbor-- Part 1

The December 4, 2021, Sun Sentinel  by George W. Rhodes.

"It's 80 years on and they're almost gone."

According to a National Park Service news release earlier this month,  150  veterans of World War II, including 40 who were there at Pearl Harbor that day in 1941, will be attending the annual day of remembrance in Pearl Harbor tomorrow.

If not 100 years old, Pearl Harbor survivors are near it.  Those who were 20 years old back then are now 100.  Some were younger, some older.

Those 40 sure have some stories to tell about that day and some have told them.

--GreGen

Battleship North Carolina Marks Its 60th Anniversary

From the October 2, 2021, Wilmington (NC) Star-News by John Staton.

It has now been sixty years since the famed battleship USS North Carolina arrived at her permanent home of Wilmington, North Carolina.

It arrived October 2, 1961, before over 100,000 onlookers and moored across from Wilmington on the west bank of the Cape Fear River.

It was dedicated on April 29, 1962, as a memorial to the more than 10,000 North Carolinians who died fighting in World War II.  For the past sixty years, the 728-foot decommissioned  Navy vessel has not only been  a vital part of the downtown Wilmington skyline, but also its economy, attracting tens of thousands of visitors a year, including more than 200,000 since October 1 of last year.  (Not too bad in these days of the pandemic.) 

--GreGen

Fort Fisher Celebrates Its Lesser-Known WW II History

From the September 4, 2021, WWAY 3 ABC/CBS News by Matthew Huddleston.

Fort Fisher is celebrating the 80th anniversary of World War II training exercises that took place at the Civil War fort.  They began in 1941 when Fort Fisher trained anti-aircraft batteries.  To commemorate this, activities for all ages were held this past Saturday.

According to organizers, there was a steady turnout all day for the free activities that included reenactors in period clothing and uniforms.

Events coordinator Si Lawrence says many people are not aware of the role the fort played during the war, though most know about its role in the Civil War.

He said the event was canceled last year due to COVID, but it is normally held in September to honor the WW II history.

--GreGen

77th Anniversary of D-Day-- Part 3: The Dead American Paratrooper in the Tree

"In France, people who remember these men, they kept them close to their hear," Charles Shay said.  "And they remember what they did for them.  And I don't think the French people will ever forget."

On Saturday morning, people in dozens of World War II vehicles, from motorcycles to jeeps and trucks, gathered in Colleville-Montgomery to parade down the nearby roads along Sword Beach to the sounds of a pipe band.  Residents, some waving French and American flags came to watch.

Henri-Jean Renaud, 86, remembers D-Day like it was yesterday.  He was a young boy and was hidden in his family home in Saint-Mere-Eglise when more than 800 planes bringing U.S. paratroopers flew over the town while German soldiers fired at them with machine guns.

Describing an "incredible noise" followed by silence, he remembers crossing the town's central square on the morning of June 6.  He especially recalls seeing one dead American paratrooper stuck in a big tree that is still standing by the town's church.

"I came here hundreds of times.  The first thing I do is look at the tree," he said.  "That's always to that young guy that I'm thinking of.  he was told:  'You're going to jump in the middle of the night in a country you don't know' ... He died and his feet never touched (French) soil, and that is very moving to me."

D-Day cost the lives of 4,414 Allied troops with 2,501 of that number Americans.

--GreGen

77th Anniversary of D-Day-- Part 2: Rapidly Dwindling Group of Survivors

Charles Shay regretted that the pandemic "is interrupting everything."  He is expected to be the only veteran at Sunday's anniversary day ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer.

"We have no visitors coming to France this year for two years now.  And I hope it will soon be over soon," he said.

Shay's lone presence is all the more poignant as the number of survivors of this epochal battle dwindles.  Just one veteran bow remains of the French commando unit that joined U.S., British, Canadian and other Allied troops storming Normandy's code-named beaches.

Some French and a few other World War II history enthusiasts from other European countries gathered in Normandy.

Driving restored jeeps, dressed in old uniforms or joyfully eating at the newly reopened terraces of restaurants, they're contributing to revive the commemoration's special atmosphere -- and keeping alive the memory of June 6, 1944.

--GreGen

Pearl Harbor in My Other Blogs This Past Monday-- Part 1: The USS Oklahoma Unknowns

This past Monday was the 79th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and yo commemorate it, I posted about the event in all eight of my blogs.  You can go over to the My Blogs column to the right of this and click on the blogs and go to that date to find out what I wrote.

But, here is a short synapsis of what I wrote:

NOT SO FORGOTTEN: WAR OF 1812:  Walter Ray Pentico on the USS Oklahoma.  Still unidentified.

COOTER'S HISTORY THING:  USS Oklahoma Unknown Grant Cook Jr. of Cozard, Nebraska identified.  Also two brothers from Nebraska William and Howard Trapp.  A total of 22 Nebraskans were killed aboard the USS Oklahoma that day.

DOWN DA ROAD I GO:  Identifying the Unknowns of the USS Oklahoma.

--GreGen

USS Arizona Survivor Lou Conte-- Part 3: Plans On Being at Pearl Harbor Next Year for 80th Anniversary

After Pearl Harbor, Lou Conter stayed in the U.S. Navy, eventually becoming a pilot and flying in the VP-11 Black Cat Patrol Bombing  Squadron.  While serving in the Pacific, he was shot down twice and "helped rescue 219 Australian Coast Watchers from  upper New Guinea behind the lines and living with local  tribes," he recalled.

He stayed in the Navy until 1967, retiring as a lieutenant commander.

In 1991, during the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, he met fellow naval aviator George H.W. Bush.

Mr. Conter had plans to go to Pearl Harbor for the observance this year, but COVID-19 canceled his plans.

Yet, he has every intention of being there on December 7, 2021, for the 80th anniversary.  He says he will be turning 100 just before it.

He also has a book coming out about his life.  Should be very interesting reading.

He Sure Has Lived Through a Lot.  --GreGen

'I Just Did My Job" Recalls USS Arizona Survivor Louis Conter-- Part 1

From the December 2, 2020,  Fox 40 News (California) "'I just did my job:' Grass Valley Navy sailor recalls being aboard the USS Arizona during Pearl Harbor" by Doug Johnson.

Monday, December 7, is the 79th anniversary of this event.  Sadly, every year there are fewer and fewer survivors of it to commemorate it.

However, one local man was there.

"Everyone of us did our job well.  There wasn't one person on the ship that didn't do their job on the ship the way he was trained."  Lou Conter, 99, is one of just two men aboard that ill-fated ship still alive today.  He was a quartermaster 3rd class that day and had just turned 20 two months earlier.

His ship had just arrived at Pearl Harbor on the afternoon of December 5.  Little did they know that at that very time, a Japanese attack force was nearing its destination.

--GreGen

We're Four Days from the 79th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor: Death of Lambert Turner, 92, Served on USS Pennsylvania After the Attack

Since we are now just four days from the 79th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor which plunged the United States into World War II, I will begin devoting this blog to recent events which have a Pearl Harbor connection.

Although, it is very clear that the United States had been preparing for entry into World War II for several years prior to it.

LAMBERT (LARRY) TURNER, 92

Died November 21, 2010.

Born and raised in Minnesota.  Joined the U.S. Navy  during his senior year and was posted to the USS Pennsylvania, which was damaged at Pearl Harbor during the attack and preparing for the invasion of Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped.

Sadly, all too often any news involving Pearl Harbor in WW II these days involves one of the survivors dying.

--GreGen

Pearl Harbor Remembrance May Be Mainly Virtual This Year

From the November 14, 2020,  The Garden Island, Hawaii. 

On December 7, the National Park Service and U.S. Navy will host the 79th National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day to honor the 2,390 American lives lost that day when it was attacked in 1941. 

The ceremony will begin at 7:50 when a very small number of veterans and speakers  will be at  the Pearl Harbor National Memorial's Contemplation Circle with the keynote speech given by Admiral John Aquilino, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Most of the ceremony will take place virtually.

A moment of silence will be observed at 7:55, the exact moment of the Japanese attack.

--GreGen

Is the Pandemic This Generation's Pearl Harbor or 9/11?-- Part 2: 'September 11 Is Your December 7'

This encounter between the writer and the old World War II veteran took place on December 7, 2001, on the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

This was just a few months after the worst terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

The old veteran said to the writer,  "September 11 is your December 7."

And, it is.

And, it always will be.

Aircraft Carriers Serving As Air Transports

Continued from previous blog entry.

During World War II, smaller aircraft carriers often performed the role of aircraft delivery.

More recently, in the late 2000s, the USS Bon Homme Richard transported "red air" aggressor jets to Hawaii for exercises.

In 1992, two B-25 Mitchell bombers took off from the aircraft carrier USS Ranger to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid on Japan in 1942.  That operation involved sixteen b_25s taking off from the carrier USS Hornet.

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson brought another group of warbirds to Hawaii for the 50th anniversary of the end of the war.

--GreGen

World War II Surrender Ceremony on Board the USS Missouri to Be Held September 2, 2020

From the August 24, 2020, "WW II surrender ceremony in Hawaii limited to local veterans" by Hannah Patrick.

This 75th World War II anniversary at Pearl Harbor will likely be the last  opportunity for many of that war's aging veterans to attend a commemoration, but sadly will only be limited to those veterans living in Hawaii because of coronavirus concerns.

Originally plans called for 200 to assemble on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri, where the original surrender ceremony took place in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.

Organizers are working on a way to make the event virtual for WW II veterans on the mainland.

Here's Hoping They Find a Way to Make It Virtual.  --GreGen