Louis Conter
No Photo Available | Quartermaster Louis Conter USN
Crewman of USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Conter went to flight school after Pearl Harbor, earning his wings to fly PBY patrol bombers, which the Navy used to look for submarines and bomb enemy targets. He flew 200 combat missions in the Pacific with a 'Black Cats' squadron, which conducted dive bombing at night in planes painted black.One night in 1943 he and his crew had to avoid a dozen or so nearby sharks after they were shot down near New Guinea. When one sailor expressed doubt they would survive, Conter responded 'baloney.' Don't ever panic in any situation. Survive is the first thing you tell them. Don't panic or you're dead,' he said. They were quiet and treaded water until another plane came and dropped them a lifeboat hours later. In the late 1950s, he was made the Navy's first SERE officer - which is an acronym for survival, evasion, resistance and escape. He spent the next decade training Navy pilots and crew on how to survive if they're shot down in the jungle and captured as a prisoner of war. Some of his pupils used his instruction to live through years as POWs in Vietnam. |