Lou Conter, the last living survivor on board the USS Arizona during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, has died. He was 102. Conter died Monday morning while surrounded by family in Grass Valley, California, his daughter confirmed to KCRA 3. He had been in hospice for the past four weeks. His family said funeral arrangements are being made, and there will be a ceremony with full military honors. Last year, Conter shared with KCRA 3 his story and recollections about the attack on Pearl Harbor.Conter was only 18 when he enlisted in the United States Navy. The Germans had just invaded Poland, and war was on the horizon."I said, 'OK, I'll sign up,' so I signed up for four years, and I was going to leave at 5:45 that night," Conter said from his home in Grass Valley.After boot camp, the Denver native was assigned to the USS Arizona."March of 1940, the fleet went north of Hawaii for exercises," he said.The fleet ended up docking at Pearl Harbor. The Arizona was one of 100 ships anchored to the piers. Conter worked as a quartermaster. He was at his post on a warm December morning in 1941."It was five minutes to 8, and the first plane came across," Conter said.What happened next is something he and America vividly remember more than 80 years later."As soon as they came in, we knew what was happening,” Conter said. “We knew for six months we were training hard for fighting the Japanese at war. They were dive bombing, and they were right down the ship's edge. We didn't have time to look up and see what was coming. They were already right down at the water's edge. It lasted for about 40 minutes. We took a 50-60-hundred-pound bomb alongside the number two turret. It went through five decks in the forward lower handling room and blew the power up there for the number one and number two turret, and the whole bow came up out of the water."Thick black smoke quickly filled the Oahu sky. The bombs just kept falling.“Guys were coming out of the fire, and we were just grabbing them and laying them down,” Conter said. “They were real bad. You would pick them up by the bodies, and the skin would come off your hands."The Japanese planes were targeting battleships like the Arizona."We started fighting the fire, and we fought the fire until Tuesday," Conter said.Twenty-one ships were sunk or significantly damaged and 2,400 Americans were killed, with another 1,100 wounded."There was no time to do anything,” Conter said. “It happened so fast."In the wake of Pearl Harbor, Conter was sent to take a crash course in flight school. Just months later, he was piloting his own plane. Conter was selected to fly with the Black Cats, the country’s first version of stealth bombers. They would operate under the cover of darkness."We'd go out at 5:30 at night and didn't come in until 8:30 the next morning,” he said. “We had no markings on us. We would do our dive bombers at 1,000 feet."The missions proved dangerous."The first time we got shot down was September '43," Conter said.Off the coast of New Guinea, several Black Cats splashed down in the waters off the coast. Commanding officers weren't sure if they'd live. Conter says the sailors huddled together and fought off sharks before getting to the beach.Conter would survive. He’d survive the ocean and the sharks. He’d survive being stranded in enemy territory for days. He’d survive World War II and the Korean War. He served 28 years before his retirement in 1967 as a lieutenant commander."We were just lucky,” Conter said. “I had a sister who was a nun for 70 years. She died when she was 91, and I always told her she prayed enough to save my life."In April 2023, the country lost 102-year-old Ken Potts. With Potts' death, Conter became the last living survivor on board the USS Arizona. Conter had hoped to make one last trip to Hawaii in December but decided he didn't have the strength to do so. "They call a lot of us heroes, and I've always said we are not the heroes,” Conter had told KCRA 3. “Heroes are the ones right there that day that lost their lives. They gave everything up. We got back to the States. We got married. We had kids and grandkids. We are still here. They were lost forever right then and there."President Joe Biden reacts to Conter's death The president released this statement calling Conter a "hero.""This week, America lost a hero.On December 7, 1941, Lou Conter was serving on the U.S.S. Arizona, stationed on Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i. His job was quartermaster, assisting with the battleship’s navigation. He had just turned 20 years old.When Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor began that morning, the Arizona was hit by several armor-piercing bombs. One hit the ship’s magazine, where more than a million pounds of gunpowder were stored. The battleship exploded.Lou, miraculously, was uninjured. He quickly got to work helping survivors, and he spent the next several days helping to put out fires and recover bodies. In the end, 1,177 officers and crewmen of the U.S.S. Arizona were killed. Fewer than 100 of the people on board that day survived.Lou Conter’s service to his country didn’t end there. He became a Naval pilot, flying hundreds of combat missions in World War II and dozens in the Korean War. He also became the Navy’s very first SERE officer, training airmen in critical skills – Survive, Evade, Resist, and Escape – in case they were shot down or captured. By the time he retired from the military, he had earned the rank of lieutenant commander. And he never forgot all the brave men he served with on board the Arizona. Until he was nearly 100 years old, he attended annual memorial services at Pearl Harbor.When Lou passed away on Monday at the age of 102, America said farewell to the last known survivor of the U.S.S. Arizona.The women and men who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces are patriots in the highest sense. Like Lou, they risk their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans. Like Lou, they bravely undertake dangerous missions to defend our nation’s freedom and future. Like Lou, they believe deeply in their duty to their country and their fellow service members and will go to the ends of the earth to fulfill that duty. Our nation owes them all a debt of gratitude we can never repay.Today, our hearts are with Lou Conter’s family and friends, and all those he served with over the years, including his shipmates on the U.S.S. Arizona. May God bless and keep them."--KCRA 3's Daniel Macht contributed to this story.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app for the latest alerts