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USS Arizona survivor gets hero’s welcome in return to Hawaii
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - One of the last remaining USS Arizona survivors received a hero's welcome in Honolulu on Tuesday.

Water cannons greeted Lou Conter's Hawaiian Airlines flight from Sacramento.
The 98-year-old California resident and his family will attend Saturday's ceremony to mark the 78th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.

"I always come out to pay respect for the 2,403 men that were killed that day, including 1,177 of my shipmates on the Arizona," he said.

When Conter missed last December’s ceremony due to an illness, for the first time there was no survivor from the sunken battleship was at the tribute.

On Saturday, he will be at Pearl Harbor for the annual event as well as a private ceremony in which his fellow shipmate, Lauren Bruner, will interred on the USS Arizona.

"We're losing that generation so quickly, and our younger generation needs to embrace the history and realize what great men these guys were and women," said Warren Hull, who is producing a documentary and a book about Conter. "We have so many great stories from that generation."

The other two USS Arizona survivors, Donald Stratton and Ken Potts, have indicated that they’re no longer able to travel to Hawaii.

I had the honor of meeting Mr Stratton twice over the past 2 years. He is an AMAZING and humble human being. His book is also awesome; I highly recommend it: All the Gallant Men.

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Originally posted by mrbill345:


On Saturday, he will be at Pearl Harbor for the annual event as well as a private ceremony in which his fellow shipmate, Lauren Bruner, will interred on the USS Arizona.

US Army divers used MK5 diving gear which would have been used in that era, to inter Fire Control Chief Lauren Bruner's ashes inside the USS Arizona where he will rest with his shipmates:







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Army divers used WWII-era gear to inter a Pearl Harbor survivor aboard the sunken USS Arizona