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Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg
Corumbas. Our guest in this edition is

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Lewis Conter. Mister Conter's death made
headlines in recent weeks because he was the

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last surviving veteran of the USS Arizona, the battleship that was attacked and sunk

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during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
on December seventh, nineteen forty one.

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Mister Canter was one hundred and two
years old. Today you'll hear all about

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his experiences at Pearl Harbor and much
more from a naval career spanning decades.

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Lewis Conter was born in Ojibwe,
Wisconsin, in nineteen twenty one. Not

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long after that, his family was
on the move to the Southwest and eventually

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settling in the Denver, Colorado area. That's where he graduated from Heis School

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in nineteen thirty nine, and later
that year it was off to the Navy.

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There was a neighbor of ours,
Wicks, that joined the Navy nineteen

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thirty five. He was a signaman
third class sigamon on the airs on the

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Nevada USS Nevada, and he came
home. In those days, you'd come

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home for ninety days before you had
to sign up again for another four years.

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Ship over and he signed up and
he came home and so we were

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all sitting around there and he says, come on, you guys, walk

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go down with me. I got
to sign up. So we went down

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and across the navy recruiters grabbed us
and said there's a nine month waiting list,

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so once you take the exam.
So we all took the exam and

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passed and forgot about it. I
went home and went back to swift over

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night three thirty, and I was
in bed one morning at eight o'clock.

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They get home till twelve twelve thirty. My mother came up and said,

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are you in troubles? And I
said no, why? I said,

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well, somebody's asking for you on
the phone was Anthony Conter. So I

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went down. We only had one
phone down in the dining room, so

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I went down and answering. It
was the navy apartment and they said we're

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six members short for our draft tonight
at five forty five, and we got

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to fill it up or I'd come
out and talk to us. I said,

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okay, I don't have to go
to work till three thirty. So

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I went down and talked to him, and they talked me into signing up

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for four years and leaving that night
at five forty five. So I called

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my mother, and I called my
girlfriend, and I called my dad at

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work. He was worked at Swifting
Company. And I went down, picked

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up my check and we got paid
every week. In the check, we're

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getting thirty cents an hour Swifting Company, so forty hours weeks, about twelve

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dollars a week. So we got
a ten dollar bill and two one dollar

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bills and then hope every week,
and I got my twelve dollars and five

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forty five. That night, I
was on train for San Diego, and

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that's how I started. After basic
training, it was time to join a

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ship for Loke Conter. It was
the back Arizona. When I got three

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months of boot camp San Diego,
we were four or five us from that,

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the division was sent to Long Beach. All of the ships were anchored

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Long Meats. Then the Navy in
San Diego and Seattle and San Francisco,

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and we went to board the Arizona
first of January of nineteen forty April first

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the whole fleet went for the maneuvers
outside of south of Honolulu, south of

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the Hawaiian Islands. We first hit
Oahu and Maui and Lino Roads. We

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finished the maneuvers and Morston decided that
it was going to keep the fleet in

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Pearl. Then after that we operated
half the fleet, half the battleships.

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At that time we had battleship had
four carriers. We had eight battleships out

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there. We'd have whole division three
battleship like our division Battleship Division number one.

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We had the Oklahoma, Nevada,
and Arizona, and then it was

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the Western Virginia, California, and
Maryland and each one at r Admiral his

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commander Battleship Division. And when I
first went aboard the Arizona, Captain as

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you see, kid was our skipper. And then he left and Captain Train

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came aboard, and then he left
and Capt. Van Vakimer came board,

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and an Admiral Kid came back as
a radmal commander Battleship Division number one,

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and he's still on the ship.
He was buried. He was killed December

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seventh, along with Camp Van Vakimer. The next step was getting assigned a

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battle station responsibility, but it would
not be long before Conter got an assignment

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much closer to the top brass on
board. I was in second division and

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my battle station was a lower handing
room and turret number two. Because at

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that time the three fourteen inch guns
they had round bags one hundred and five

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pounds a piece, and they put
four them in each barrel to shoot a

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shell off, they put the shell
in first fifteen to sixty pound and they

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show four bags in and closed the
hats, you know. So we had

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over a million pounds of powder in
the forward lower handling rooms. After a

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while, Bob Sink, who was
the chief quartermaster, came down there and

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he said, Louis, see hers
up there studying. You're not going to

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shore much. You don't have that
much money to go ashore, and how

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would you like to be a quartermaster
strucker? And I said, I'd love

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to be because we all knew that
the quartermasters were with the officers captain all

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the time. They kept the logs, and they were on the bridge,

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and they were on the quarterdeck.
They didn't have to scrub decks, so

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it's like an advancement. And so
it wasn't a week later that I was

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transferred from Second Division in the End
Division, which is a navigation division,

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and I had to learn maps and
sharts and grids and latitude longitudes and everything

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else because I navigated and star sites. And that's what I did and passed

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my first exam third class Quartermaster,
four months before the Pearl Harbor hit.

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While Conter was serving at Pearl Harbor
in nineteen forty, America was not at

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war, but he says, everyone
in the Navy and back home knew it

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was coming. Everybody, dude there
was coming, just didn't know when.

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Even when I went home in November
nineteen forty, a year before and my

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younger sister's wedding. My older sister
was going to Loretta Heights College. She's

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two years old, and I am, and I was there for a couple

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of three days and for a wedding
and everything, and my older sister said,

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Loos, I'm going into the convent. I'm going to be a nun,

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Loretta nun. And I said,
oh, you are, says yes,

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says you're in the Navy and you're
going to go to war and somebody

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has to pray for you. And
that was in November nineteen forty, so

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everybody in the States knew that we
were heading. Remember the Japanese, that

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bar didn't start in Pearl Harbor.
It started nineteen thirty two. The Japanese

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went through Korea. Korea at that
time was a one country. They went

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through Korea, Manchuria, and Eastern
China all the way down the East China

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coast from nineteen thirty two to nineteen
forty one. Must have killed five to

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seven million Chinese on the way down. We knew that someday it was going

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to come. We had Philip with
our fleet. Asiatic Fleet was based in

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the Philippines today at Manila, you
know, Sue Bay, and we'd been

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out there for years since nineteen o
five. While serving in Hawaii as a

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twenty year old sailor in nineteen forty
one, lu Kanter started dating a local

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seventeen year old girl, and that
girl's father had some very well placed connections,

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including an admiral who gave Kantor his
blessing for a new assign that would

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take him into the skies instead of
keeping him on the seas. I was

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over at their house for first of
September when I had for dinner and Admiral

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Calhoun came in, who was commander
of based Force, and he wrote the

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orders for Pencer Cole and everything.
And so we're sitting there and he said,

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well, lou, what are you
doing everything? Going to college?

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And he said, no, Admiral, I got to tell you, I'm

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a third class quartermaster on the us
IS Arizona. And he said, well,

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that's fine. So I told him
about Johnny, saying, let's go

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to Flatscow. And he said,
well, there's nothing the law against it.

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He says, just that most of
them are with the planes all the

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time, and nobody else puts in
for it. So he said, when

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you go back to the Arizona,
take your exams, have your request signed

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by your executive officer. Captain's send
it over to me and I'll see if

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it passes. All right. So
I went back to the ship. Now,

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giant geez, let's take the test. So we got all the Lieutenant

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Wraggzel, it was our pilot aboard
the Arizona, one of our pilot.

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It's a senior pilot. And the
next time we went to sea, he

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gave Johnny and a ride off number
three catapult. We were at sea and

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doing fifteen to eighteen knots into the
wind and shot out in the first time

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I'd ever been an airplane in my
life. And so we shot off when

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it five thousands of feet and they
spun around and came back. At that

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time the shipping to make a hard
port turn and they make a big slick

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there and they'd throw out a boom
and the plane come in and land on

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that slick. And we were in
the open sea, and we tacks up

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on a rope matt and then the
pilot would reach over and hold our belt

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where we stood up and we grabbed
the hook and hook it into the plane.

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They'd set us back on the catapult. And so we passed that and

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we sent the request to order to
Adual Calhouna and November. First week November

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we got orders to Pensacola. But
just when Contra thought he was headed to

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Pensacola in November, he was told
he'd have to wait, but only for

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a few weeks. We made our
reservations to go back to the twentieth and

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November to on the learning and going
back to Pittscola. Well, Captain Vauckenberg

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called us down jeez often said Johnson
you and Connor are not going back to

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the learning and said, I'm not
going to waste five thousand dollars in the

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navy money. Said, we're going
back December of the nineteenth the Long Beach

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to pick up our one point one
gun. So you go back with us

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and go from there. And those
days you said yes, sir captain,

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and that was it. As mentioned, the Americans at Pearl Harbor knew it

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was only a matter of time before
they would be at war. As a

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result, the Navy had the ships
doing regular exercises out in the Pacific.

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Conter says, the Pacific Fleet had
a very consistent training pattern. Half the

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fleet would go up and half from
a four battleships you up fors or three

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to go out with the cruisers and
destroyers in one carrier, and the rest

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of the stay. And on Monday
when we come back, we'd stay out

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and the other half went to see
and then we'd come in. Because we

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knew we were preparing for war,
and so there was never over half the

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ships to port. The Arizona,
which was due to return to the US

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mainland later in December, completed another
round of training exercises on December fifth,

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nineteen forty one. Contre says the
commanders wish they could just keep plowing their

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way back to California instead of waiting
at Pearl Harbor, but they dutifully followed

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orders. So we went to see
the last week in November and came back

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the fifth of December. We were
coming into port on a Friday. We

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were in a Friday. The fifth
Admiral Kidd said that Captain Van and Baker,

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we should not be going back into
port period, but we had to

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go in. When we come back, Lewis Conter shares his vivid memories of

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the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles

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sixty Seconds of Service. This sixty
Seconds of Service is presented by T Mobile.

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Visit tmobile dot com slash military to learn

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more about how they support our military
community. From Bimidgi, Minnesota, after

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one hundred years, the BAMIDGI Chapter
of Disabled American Veterans is still serving the

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community, going out on cold mornings
and collecting donations that help veterans and need

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and their families. Found that in
nineteen twenty four, as the seventh chapter

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in the state. The organization's presence
is most visible through its drop off boxes,

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bright green metal containers that can be
found outside of grocery stores and on

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street corners that collect donations of clothes, shoes, and household items. Twice

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a week in the early hours of
the morning. Members of the DAV often

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veterans themselves, collect the items and
bring them back to the chapter's headquarters on

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the edge of town, where they're
met by another team of volunteers. For

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more great veteran stories, just go
to National Defense Network dot com. This

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is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest this week is Lewis Kanter,

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who passed away in early April twenty
twenty four. He was the last

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survivor of the USS Arizona, a
battleship sunk by the Japanese on December seventh,

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nineteen forty one. We just heard
mister Contre say that his commanders wished

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they didn't have to go back to
Pearl Harbor after concluding exercises on December fifth,

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nineteen forty one. They wished they
could get a head start on their

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trip back to the US mainland,
scheduled for December nineteenth, but they did

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have to return to Pearl Harbor,
and two days later, nearly three quarters

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of the Arizona crew were killed when
the Japanese attacked. And of course just

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two days later the Japanese attack unfolded
on the morning of Sunday, December seventh,

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nineteen forty one, and Leuke Kanter
remembered it vividly, so of course

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of seventh cop and he's hit five
minutes to eight in the morning, and

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nine minutes after eight eight or nine
minutes after I was keeping the log pay

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well, but uh kurt Ains,
my other quartermaster, went to the bridge

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with the Captain Vaka Murgh and took
the log book with him and everything.

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And the captain and Admiral Kidd came
through right the way they were heading for

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the bridges, and he came down
to vakners as Connor secured the quarterdet and

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come to the bridge secured the lions. Because the best of his outboard of

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us, so the quartermaster was on
went forward to cut the lines forward on

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the port side, and I pulled
the gang plank in and uh nine minutes

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after it started, a plane came
across to probably ten twelve thousand feet with

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the sixteen seventeen hundred pound bomb on
it dropped and got a lucky hit.

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They hit on the starboard side forward
by number two turret on the starbde side,

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and number two turret went through five
decks and into the lower handling room,

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and when it went into the lower
handling room there went a million pounds

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the powder that blew up, and
that's when the pictures you all see of

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it. And the bow came about
thirty forty feet out of the water and

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still straight back down and Bob came
out of the from the bow from the

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fire after throwing the lines off to
the vestil and cut the lines, and

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Comana Fruquas, who was our senior
officer board then it was our first lieutenant,

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came up on the quarter deck and
he was over by number four and

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we got a bomber with her,
and he got knocked out for a while,

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and we were over between number three
turret and the bulkhead and didn't hit

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us, about four of us over
there, and so he came to and

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took charge of the whole ship,
and he order us to the guys were

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running out of the fire and it
was pretty bad. Then said docim my,

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conscious if you have to, because
they'll they jump over the side there

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could burn the death of the fire. So we laid fifteen or six see

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them down on the deck there they
were coming out burned. And then about

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forty minutes, about eight thirty or
ninety nine, We don't know exactly what

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time, but around that time kind
of course that abandoned ship because it was

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burning so bad. Forward over there
else and the boats were tied up by

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the dot and we were tied up
by the Fox eight key, and the

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liberty boats were tied up. There's
fifty foot motor launches by the keys.

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So we loaded the guys in the
launches and to tell you to the hospital

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ship, and we abandoned ship.
While the exact timing certainly came as a

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00:16:41.559 --> 00:16:47.799
major surprise, Contrace says there was
no confusion about what was happening. Everyone

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00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:52.240
knew immediately it was the Japanese.
When the first planes came across, the

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00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:56.399
first ones hit Conyey and they came
across the hill. When they came across

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the hill, it was immediately that
we sounded General quarters. Everybody saw the

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reds and they knew immediately what it
was, and their guns were firing within

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thirty seconds on the ships and on
the beach. We had two ways.

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The first way he did most of
the damage to We had eight battleships there

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and they sunk though, so that
that was the main part of the fleet.

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When the Nevada pulled out to head
up the channel, all of the

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planes out of the hills headed for
her because they wanted to sinker in the

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channel. They had to close the
fleet off for six eight months, so

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they got her out of there,
and that's when the chief quartermaster beached her

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up there to Barber's point, and
then they were a court martial him because

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the captain hadn't told him to.
But then they decided to give him the

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Sting of Service Cross because it was
the best thing in the world. He

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knew it exactly what he was doing. Contre has always believed it was a

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great mistake to have so many American
battleships in Pearl Harbor at any one time,

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and that made the Japanese attack much
more devastat But he also says the

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American response that day was very prompt
given the circumstances, and by the second

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wave, Japanese pilots were paying heavy
prices. And the first wave was in

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and out in fifteen minutes. You
know, they don't spend too much time,

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but everything happens, and then the
second wave came in eight thirty.

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That's when most of the Japanese got
shot down as a second wave. The

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Japanese attack killed more than two four
hundred Americans, including one thousand, one

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hundred and seventy seven on the USS
Arizona. Only three hundred and thirty five

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from the ship survived. The next
day, as President Roosevelt declared December seventh

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the Day of Infamy and asked Congress
for a declaration of war against Japan.

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Leu Kanter and others were doing very
difficult work at Pearl Harbor. For the

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next two days. We fought to
fire with the ships, with them both

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all noses, and on Tuesday the
fire came down a little bit, so

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we got out of the base force
and slept for one night, and then

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we went back and when the ship
cooled down. Pete Who's offer was our

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00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:19.279
chief water tender, and he was
our chief diver, and about twelve thirteen

251
00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:23.880
of us went aboard the ship and
dove with shallow water helmets, and he

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dove with a helmet. He could
stayed down three or four hours. We'd

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00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:32.720
stood on thirty forty five minutes with
shallow water, the guys pumping air throst

254
00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:38.559
on the deck. And after four
or five days to that, why Pete

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00:19:38.599 --> 00:19:41.559
told command of Fruit, but it
was just too dangerous for getting our arro

256
00:19:41.559 --> 00:19:45.960
hose just caught on the jagged edges
and the hatches them, and so they

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called it off. Conter was also
a man without a ship, so he

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was soon given a new assignment on
the streets of Honolulu. Pete and I

259
00:19:55.640 --> 00:20:03.480
were transferred up to Honolulu because Captain
guys Win was our executive off centership.

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00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:07.799
He was a full commander, but
he made a captain immediately. They made

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00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:12.559
him pro West Marshall, and he
wanted us up there because we were experienced

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with forty five's, experienced and sharp
shoal and everything else. And we put

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00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:23.039
out the order that nobody was to
be on the streets after sunseter before sunrise

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00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:30.319
they get shot, and they knew
we met it, and there was nobody

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00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:34.359
that upset that or try death,
set or demonstrate or anything else. So

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he just live with it until May
nineteen forty five when it was pulled.

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00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:44.000
When we come Back, Lewis Conter
leaves Pearl Harbor, but later returns to

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serve in the Pacific. He'll also
share some of his service in the Cold

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War and how the tough jungle survival
training course he taught proved to be an

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invaluable gift to the leader of the
American prisoners at the notorious Hanoi Hilton in

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Vietnam. I'm Greg Corumbus and this
is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles.

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I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Lewis Conter, the

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last surviving veteran of the uss Arizona. Mister Contra passed away in early April

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00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:25.079
twenty twenty four. He just shared
his memories from the horrific Japanese attack at

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Pearl Harbor and the immediate aftermath.
A few weeks after the attacks, he

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finally had time to visit his girlfriend
and her family once again. He soon

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00:21:34.519 --> 00:21:40.160
ran into the same admiral who quickly
wondered why Conter wasn't in flight school as

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00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:44.720
he had instructed. After Contra explained
what had happened, the Admiral proved his

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00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:49.359
transfer again, and this time LEU
Conter really was on his way to Pensacola.

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When I'm at penser Cola and we
started the third week your fourth week

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00:21:55.519 --> 00:22:00.920
in January, and that enlisted class, and we went seven days a week,

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00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:04.519
seven nights a week, studied.
I helped with all the navigations of

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00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:11.640
the pilots. They other aviation ratings
for enlisted. We were thirty men in

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00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:18.680
one class. Helped us with the
trusts in the drag on the ships and

285
00:22:18.200 --> 00:22:25.200
was caused a flight and everything else
in stalls and engines and radios and everything

286
00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:29.599
else. Because we all knew Morse
code backwards, you know. Quartermaster.

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00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:33.279
I could stand on the bridge at
that time and read signals from light signals

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00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:36.759
from another ship over here, and
I'd give them to the chat before the

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00:22:36.920 --> 00:22:40.920
signal who brought them up here.
But it was just like that, and

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00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:45.759
we did that jerk. So anyway, we got our wings November fifteenth,

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00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:49.799
nineteen forty two. Once training was
done, Conter was flying PB wise and

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sent back out to serve in the
Pacific. I served VP eleven CHROs brought

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00:22:55.680 --> 00:23:00.599
eleven from you know, for the
first couple of years. We left in

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00:23:02.279 --> 00:23:08.119
January last of john first February of
nineteen forty three and went to Honolulu over

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00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:12.039
there two months and went to Perth, Australia, which went to six days.

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00:23:12.119 --> 00:23:17.359
It took us six days to fly
to Perth, went Johnson Allen and

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00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:22.240
Fiji and Eldon Maya and Brisbane,
Australia and Adelaide and over the Perth person

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00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:26.200
on the southwestern coast, and we
operated an Indian Ocean out there, and

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00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:32.359
then went north and operated out of
Excelluth Golf and out of Excelluth Golf,

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00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:37.119
some of us, a couple of
us flew into the southern Philippines to pick

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00:23:37.240 --> 00:23:41.720
up women and children that had gotten
out of Manila and gotten south down into

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the jungle there and they were protecting
them and we had to get him from

303
00:23:47.079 --> 00:23:49.440
the natives area. Had to pick
him up winter, pick him up and

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00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:52.599
get him back to Perth so they
could come back to the States. And

305
00:23:53.319 --> 00:24:00.519
we fly out of Excelluth Golf north
which was northwestern corner Australia, past tomorrow

306
00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:04.680
in Borneoia and we land at sea
at two o'clock in the morning with a

307
00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:10.480
submarine and gas up and then we're
going into the Southern Philippines there in the

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00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:17.359
jungle and high land and pick up
fifteen sixteen people, take off and go

309
00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:19.240
back to eath Mac Golf and fly
down to Perth. Then they get off

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00:24:19.279 --> 00:24:26.000
and we did two or three flight
slidder first light we did up there and

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00:24:26.200 --> 00:24:30.920
we took it off and came in
north of Tomorrow there and circled about three

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00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:37.039
times at one thirty in the morning, and there was no submarine Air Force,

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00:24:37.160 --> 00:24:40.200
so we had to go back to
eight thousand feet and go all and

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00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:42.400
we ran out of gas. Twenty
three point five hours in the air.

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00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:47.759
We ran out of gas going into
the export golf and landed and they towed

316
00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:49.359
us in, gassed us up and
we took it off from the one down

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00:24:49.400 --> 00:24:55.519
the Perth dropped the people off.
He was shot down twice during his service

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00:24:55.640 --> 00:25:00.440
off of Australia and beyond. Here
is how the first of those harrowing experiences

319
00:25:00.599 --> 00:25:06.559
unfolded. We got shot down one
night a Peby. We carried twelve fourteen

320
00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:11.640
parachute flares and the waist act there
were two hundred and fifty thousand candle parer

321
00:25:11.240 --> 00:25:15.759
and we'd go out at one thirty
in the morning two thirty three thirty.

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00:25:15.799 --> 00:25:19.160
We'd fly over fifteen hundred feet and
throw a couple of amount and keep light

323
00:25:19.319 --> 00:25:23.720
on the Japanese ground positions and keep
them awaken all night for a week or

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00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:26.480
ten days, and they'd be weak
when our men are going to fighting.

325
00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:34.359
And we went out and third week
in uh September of forty three and up

326
00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:37.839
alongside of the New Guinea about seven
eight miles off shore. We got shot

327
00:25:37.880 --> 00:25:44.200
at and uh a bullet went through
the waist ats exploded one of these parachue

328
00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:48.640
flares and uh I was in the
right hand seat and Gordon Kenny was left

329
00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:53.960
wait to land immediately opened see we
landed and everybody came forward closed the ash,

330
00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.160
so everything was on fire from the
back and uh we had two thousand

331
00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:02.799
pounders and two I entered under the
wing when we landed. You went dropped

332
00:26:02.839 --> 00:26:07.720
me just an hour before dark and
they all got out the pilot's escape patch.

333
00:26:08.599 --> 00:26:14.880
And Gordon Kennington is our senior pilot. He was lieutenant and he said

334
00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:18.720
to the guys, we didn't get
any life tracks or lifeboats. And he

335
00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:22.200
said, you guys, say your
prayers, because we're seven miles off short.

336
00:26:22.200 --> 00:26:25.519
It's an hour a little dark,
and I don't think any of us

337
00:26:25.559 --> 00:26:29.680
can swim them that long till we
get in the shore. And I said

338
00:26:29.839 --> 00:26:34.519
bowl. I said get together and
hold hands and tread lightly. And because

339
00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:40.279
the plane was shifting away and the
machine guns were firing all those fifty calibers

340
00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:42.480
over the water, and I said, hold hands. If this guy you

341
00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:47.319
get tired, hold him to to
on each side, hold them up.

342
00:26:48.039 --> 00:26:52.680
And so it was about thirty minutes
and it was getting darker, and one

343
00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:56.119
of our other peb wires was way
over and the horizon saw some fire came

344
00:26:56.200 --> 00:26:59.720
back over there. By the time
he got over there, we'd been in

345
00:26:59.720 --> 00:27:03.200
the water thirty to forty minutes,
spread tread and water. And the guy

346
00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:07.240
didn't say one word after I told
him to shut up and do this.

347
00:27:07.400 --> 00:27:10.920
And I was first class PTY officer
at that time. I hanging out my

348
00:27:10.960 --> 00:27:15.039
commission there. The Pby circle saw
we didn't have a lifeboat and dropped one

349
00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:19.200
of the other. We carried two
ten man lifeboats, and the Pby dropped

350
00:27:19.240 --> 00:27:25.039
it out because they couldn't inflate it
flowing all the way so and I swam

351
00:27:25.079 --> 00:27:29.720
out and got it landed one ways
away from us that open sea, and

352
00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:36.920
in Pensacola training as hard as to
turn one of those lifeboats over in the

353
00:27:36.920 --> 00:27:40.640
water, it's just impracticed and possible. And I grabbed that thing. I

354
00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:44.039
fled that thing, I flipped it
over and I dove into it, and

355
00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:47.200
I said, Han the hell did
I get in here anyway? If we

356
00:27:47.319 --> 00:27:52.599
back got all the other nine guys. We got into the beach at about

357
00:27:52.599 --> 00:27:56.599
two thirty three in the morning,
at dark all night long and got into

358
00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:03.839
New Guinea and I got him hiading
in their force and uh TD four and

359
00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:08.880
I was by playing captain. Uh
watched the patrols, combined everything. He

360
00:28:08.960 --> 00:28:14.920
kept the guys quiet, told him
don't even make one sound. And the

361
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.279
next night pet boat. I listened
to it about midnight and I said to

362
00:28:19.359 --> 00:28:22.799
TD, I said, that's a
pet boat. So we went out in

363
00:28:22.839 --> 00:28:29.279
the in the cut the boat there
and got out within one hundred feet of

364
00:28:29.319 --> 00:28:32.480
it, and they had those fifty
calibers pointing at hims as they turned those

365
00:28:32.839 --> 00:28:36.920
gd gettings away from him, and
so they said, that's Connor Klana board.

366
00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:38.799
We went aboard and they had three
d t me on a board,

367
00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:42.119
and they wouldn't let me leave and
go back and get the other guys.

368
00:28:42.200 --> 00:28:45.839
Said no, we're going anything.
So I briefed him exactly where they were,

369
00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:51.559
names and everything they were in,
and back in forty five minutes with

370
00:28:51.640 --> 00:29:00.920
all other eight men and we got
in that pet boat headed south full speed,

371
00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:07.599
got into the Half Moon. We
were operating off half Moon San Pablo,

372
00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:11.720
and we had it in the next
morning and went to breakfast, debriefed,

373
00:29:12.359 --> 00:29:17.559
slept that night. Later on the
next day and the next nine at

374
00:29:17.559 --> 00:29:19.960
five point thirty, took another PBI
out for thirteen and a half our mission.

375
00:29:21.559 --> 00:29:23.720
That's how it was in those days. After serving for a couple of

376
00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:27.680
years as a pilot, Leu Kanter
was back on the US mainland by early

377
00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:32.960
nineteen forty five, and he was
here when the war ended with the US

378
00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:38.279
dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To put it

379
00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:44.720
mildly, it irritates Kanter when he
hears that the US owes the Japanese an

380
00:29:44.759 --> 00:29:49.640
apology for dropping those bombs. He
says it was a blessing for both sides.

381
00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:56.240
Before the seventy fifth anniversary, three
Japanese reporters came here at the house

382
00:29:57.240 --> 00:30:03.240
and any wanted to talk to me
about to Pearl Harbor. They said that

383
00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:06.920
they were going to meet Obama,
the Prime minister. We're going to meet

384
00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:11.279
Obama the last week in December in
Honolulu, and they wanted to see if

385
00:30:11.319 --> 00:30:15.480
he was going to apologize them for
dropping the atomic yomb and I said,

386
00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:18.920
hell, no, he's not going
to pology. I hope he hasn't.

387
00:30:18.319 --> 00:30:23.599
I said the Prime minister Japan should
thank him for us dropping the atomic bomb,

388
00:30:25.440 --> 00:30:29.839
because we only killed two hundred thousand
Japanese and the war was over,

389
00:30:30.079 --> 00:30:34.000
and if we would have gone on, we were training the million and a

390
00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:38.920
half man to land there in November
nineteen forty five, and we would have

391
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:42.720
lost probably five hundred thousand. But
in doing that, we'd have had to

392
00:30:42.799 --> 00:30:48.480
level the whole area before we landed, and probably five to seven million Japanese

393
00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:53.400
where gotten killed. So we saved
seven million lines by dropping the atomic bombs.

394
00:30:53.799 --> 00:30:59.920
After after the war, lu Conter
left the service to go to college,

395
00:31:00.599 --> 00:31:03.839
not realizing that if he had just
stayed in the Navy and waited a

396
00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:07.359
couple of months, the government would
have paid for his education, but it

397
00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:11.119
would not be long before Conter was
back in the Navy. Now it wasn't

398
00:31:11.119 --> 00:31:17.720
about fighting Japan, though, it
was about thwarting Soviet aggression and sinister intentions

399
00:31:17.759 --> 00:31:22.240
during the Cold War. Contra describes
a mission to Iceland that also demonstrates the

400
00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:26.720
lengths to which the Soviets would try
to gain an advantage back in those days.

401
00:31:26.759 --> 00:31:30.160
When I went to the fifth feet, the Admiral said, Lewis said,

402
00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:33.960
I want you to grew up to
Kefler. We had three planes up

403
00:31:33.960 --> 00:31:41.319
for Iceland, pvs pete to eat
the view of their flyers somewhere whether the

404
00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:45.799
Russians are getting into our telephone cable
and listened to our conversation. I went

405
00:31:45.839 --> 00:31:51.519
to Keplovic rode in the right seat
of the PV with the pilot on the

406
00:31:51.559 --> 00:31:56.200
other side. I was a pilot
to it, you know, And I

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00:31:56.319 --> 00:31:59.480
said to the guys, now we're
going out over the North Sea north of

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00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:04.599
Scotland, and you fly with the
Russian fishing fleet. They got fifteen to

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00:32:04.599 --> 00:32:07.680
twenty boats there, fishing boats.
You go down to fifty feet off the

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00:32:07.680 --> 00:32:12.000
water and you can see the four
or five of them. The guys who

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00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:15.880
are standing the attention. They're spotless, there's no lines, are all coiled

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00:32:15.960 --> 00:32:19.839
up and everything else. The other
the fishermen they got really looking a patch

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00:32:19.880 --> 00:32:22.079
and they're working like heck. So
I went down fifty feet. It took

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00:32:22.119 --> 00:32:28.119
pictures of these Russian soldiers and they
had divers down and they were diving to

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00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:32.039
the international cable. They're cutting into
it and listen to the conversation. Nearly

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00:32:32.160 --> 00:32:37.440
fifties, for God's sakes. Before
long, the Cold War heated up on

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00:32:37.519 --> 00:32:43.119
the Korean peninsula and loke Conter was
called up on very short notice. When

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00:32:43.119 --> 00:32:50.039
I got to Intelle school, and
then after that I went to International Relations

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00:32:50.039 --> 00:32:54.319
into ABC school, which is atomic
biology or chemical warfare school. My wife

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00:32:54.319 --> 00:32:58.440
walked into the office when they said, what's this? I let telegram,

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00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:02.119
reported me, and he signed the
DUDI Korean War twenty fifth of June in

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00:33:02.200 --> 00:33:07.440
nineteen fifties. That night, I
was in San Diego and Carrier Group one

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00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:13.279
oh two as intelligence officer the Air
Group Counter Service in Korea would be brief.

424
00:33:13.920 --> 00:33:16.880
As an intelligence officer, his superiors
did not want to risk him being

425
00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:22.319
captured, so they grounded him and
by the end of nineteen fifty one,

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00:33:22.920 --> 00:33:28.599
Leukanter was home after a difficult divorce
and time investigating crimes within the Navy.

427
00:33:29.119 --> 00:33:32.680
Conter was given assignments much more to
his liking. One he is particularly proud

428
00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:37.319
of was teaching service members tactics to
survive in the jungle. And then he

429
00:33:37.480 --> 00:33:42.720
sent me over to Fort brag North
Carolina with the Army Special Forces. I

430
00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:47.000
went through training and other special forces
at Fort Bragnorth, Carolina. So I

431
00:33:47.039 --> 00:33:51.319
did that. As soon as I
got back to Norfolk, I was made

432
00:33:51.319 --> 00:33:58.319
the first sheer officer in the Navy
scre and thats survival and evasion, escape,

433
00:33:58.599 --> 00:34:04.400
resistance to interrogation in an espionage And
after that, my job was to

434
00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:08.360
set up schools around the world and
train pilots and our crewmen how to live

435
00:34:09.039 --> 00:34:13.280
if they got shot down, how
to live in the jungles, how to

436
00:34:13.320 --> 00:34:16.360
evade and escape. Remember, thirty
five percent of the world as jungles,

437
00:34:17.119 --> 00:34:21.760
and our men were more afraid of
the jungles than they were the Japanese.

438
00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:24.079
It was hard. You don't know, I live in the jungles. You're

439
00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:30.000
dead in a minute. Counts class
was tough, so tough that it was

440
00:34:30.039 --> 00:34:35.440
almost scrapped. But his class not
only survived, it played a critical role

441
00:34:35.840 --> 00:34:39.920
in preparing service members for the horrors
to come in our nation's next war.

442
00:34:40.400 --> 00:34:45.800
Jim Stockdale came out in Pendland.
I had won Penland and attend day school

443
00:34:46.079 --> 00:34:51.559
and fifty eight. That's after I
went. I went to the Naval War

444
00:34:51.639 --> 00:34:54.320
Caius Semi Naval War Giuds of fifty
eight and I came back from that and

445
00:34:54.320 --> 00:35:00.280
I went Pendland. I was often
charged with this exercise and we he had

446
00:35:00.320 --> 00:35:04.360
an air group out of Mirrormark come
up. But this commander walked into my

447
00:35:04.400 --> 00:35:07.960
office. I was also in charge
of the whole exercise, and he said,

448
00:35:07.039 --> 00:35:13.000
Louis, I'm from Washington Personnel,
Navy Department. He was a Navy

449
00:35:13.039 --> 00:35:16.920
pilot full commander, and he said, we've got a lot of reports from

450
00:35:17.320 --> 00:35:22.000
mothers and fathers and senators that your
schools are two damned hard on them and

451
00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:27.480
they're guys who are losing ten or
fifteen pounds and ten days. And I

452
00:35:27.519 --> 00:35:30.000
said, well, maybe they should
have lost it beforehand, but anyway,

453
00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:34.920
he says, so they sent me
out to go through the school of yours

454
00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:38.559
and just to see the report back
to him. So I says, okay,

455
00:35:38.920 --> 00:35:43.239
don't tell them who I am.
So I put him in the north

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00:35:43.360 --> 00:35:46.400
end. I had four green rays
come out of Fort Bragnoth Cline. We

457
00:35:46.519 --> 00:35:50.840
dropped him in the north end of
Penland. I mean, Penland had two

458
00:35:50.920 --> 00:35:53.760
hundred and thirty five marines for a
grocer forces, and we built a pow

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00:35:53.920 --> 00:36:00.440
camp and so the green breeds led
them down through the barbaryron everything else,

460
00:36:00.480 --> 00:36:05.119
and we capture him. So we
captured Jim and brought him in, put

461
00:36:05.159 --> 00:36:07.199
him in the pits, run the
water through the pits and everything, you

462
00:36:07.239 --> 00:36:10.320
know, and some guys those pits
you land on it, you run the

463
00:36:10.320 --> 00:36:15.119
water, and they are four or
five hours there. They'll look at acts.

464
00:36:15.159 --> 00:36:19.039
They kissed my fanny, you know, there been some guys would be

465
00:36:19.079 --> 00:36:22.159
in there fifteen minutes and they'll start
crying and going to pieces. They can't

466
00:36:22.199 --> 00:36:27.760
take it. So anyway, we
had him in those pits and everything.

467
00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:35.800
So finally the four terrogators were out
of Army Air Force Colora springs the AIS,

468
00:36:35.920 --> 00:36:38.800
which is intelligence squad for the Air
Force interrogators. And this colonel said,

469
00:36:38.880 --> 00:36:42.559
Loua, that guy is not in
that squad, and I can tell

470
00:36:42.599 --> 00:36:45.920
well. Anyway, the next morning
I introduced him. He said it was

471
00:36:45.920 --> 00:36:47.639
the best training he ever had in
his life, and he's worth it.

472
00:36:47.880 --> 00:36:52.280
Because they thought they were spending to
Congressman thought they were spending too much money

473
00:36:52.519 --> 00:36:54.920
that the guys could learn this off
for computers. I said, you can't

474
00:36:54.960 --> 00:36:58.719
even get a guy hungry in ten
days, for God's sakes. You gotta

475
00:36:58.719 --> 00:37:02.239
get him hungry to make him live
in the jungles. So anyway, he

476
00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:08.519
went back to Washington in fifty eight
fifty nine and said the report was good.

477
00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.440
Sixty eight sixty one a head.
He's time up in Pentagon, and

478
00:37:14.480 --> 00:37:16.760
they made a commanding officer over their
group, and he went to the South

479
00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:23.480
Pacific, and then Vietnam came along, and he was shot down in sixty

480
00:37:23.679 --> 00:37:29.280
four or five and became a pow
and he made vice admiral in the prison

481
00:37:29.320 --> 00:37:35.199
camp. He was seven years in
the podev camp in Vietnam. He got

482
00:37:35.239 --> 00:37:38.760
rescued in seventy two and when he
came back, he landed in Travis.

483
00:37:39.599 --> 00:37:43.760
He made a vice admiral in the
prison camp. You know, he was

484
00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:49.760
a senior one on away over McCaine
and everything. He called me personally on

485
00:37:49.800 --> 00:37:52.360
the phone. He got my phone
number and called me at home and said,

486
00:37:52.960 --> 00:37:55.960
I want to thank you lou for
being so damn tough and giving me

487
00:37:57.039 --> 00:38:00.360
such tough training, because that saved
my life. Fact, I've never lived

488
00:38:00.880 --> 00:38:07.079
that long in that foundition with the
food and the beatings and everything else without

489
00:38:07.239 --> 00:38:12.800
knowing what was going on. Thank
you very much. I'm glad if I

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00:38:12.960 --> 00:38:17.760
saved one person, I'm happy with
one brief interruption. After World War Two,

491
00:38:19.400 --> 00:38:22.800
Lewis Conter served our nation in the
US Navy from nineteen thirty nine to

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00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:29.039
nineteen sixty seven, and for more
than eighty two years, he carried the

493
00:38:29.119 --> 00:38:34.679
stories and memories of his shipmates from
the USS Arizona. As the survivors passed

494
00:38:34.679 --> 00:38:38.960
away one by one, Contra's voice
and work became more and more important,

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00:38:39.719 --> 00:38:45.000
including this past year, as he
was the only living survivor. We're honored

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00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:51.280
to have recorded his story and we're
very grateful for his service. I'm Greg

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00:38:51.320 --> 00:39:05.840
Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus,

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00:39:05.880 --> 00:39:09.880
and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center.

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00:39:10.519 --> 00:39:15.880
For more information, please visit American
Veteranscenter dot org. You can also

500
00:39:15.920 --> 00:39:22.679
follow the American Veterans Center on Facebook
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501
00:39:22.360 --> 00:39:28.360
Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
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502
00:39:28.400 --> 00:39:32.880
features, and of course please subscribe
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503
00:39:32.880 --> 00:39:38.559
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