KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — When some seventh-graders find a surprise letter in the mailbox from a celebrated World War II sailor, the first thing they do is scream, "Mom!" The next thing they do is call their best friends on Facetime.
“It was awesome, I was so excited,” said Ali Daniels.
She and her best friend, Charlie Ann Curry, wrote to the last living survivor of the USS Arizona for a National History Day project focused on the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
The early morning attack by the Japanese military on the U.S. base in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, propelled the U.S. into World War II.
"We got like, kind of, behind-the-scenes knowledge from him,” said Ali.
The letter was from Lou Conter, 102, who was around 20 years old on the day of the attack.
“He just had to pull people out of the oil and out of the flames, and put them back on the ship and just try and save them,” said Ali.
In the almost half-hour in the chaotic aftermath of the bombing, Conter tried to save fellow shipmates. He was saving lives as the USS Arizona slipped beneath the surface, lost to the sea and a symbolic tomb for the 1,177 Americans aboard that one ship killed on a "Day of Infamy."
“I want my students to feel history. And, like, what better way to do that and to hear the stories from the people that lived them? So if they can do that, oh man, that's glorious,” said Stephen Otis, a social studies teacher at Clayton-Bradley Academy in Maryville.
Lou Conter wrote a book about his first-hand account of the attack on Pearl Harbor as well as his decorated achievements as a pilot flying combat missions during the war in Korea, and surviving two shoot-downs. But, it was a handwritten letter to his "Little girls from Tennessee" that will forever be remembered by two friends, who gained another through the mail.
“He actually signed a picture for both of us … and it has a signature on it,” said Charlie Ann. “He was very brave.”
A couple of months after receiving the letter and signed photos, the girls booked a trip with their families to meet their new best pen pal. But when they arrived in California, Lou Conter's health took a turn.
The celebrated American sailor was too sick to see them. The last living survivor of the attack on the USS Arizona died on April 1, 2024, at 102 years old.
