H. R. 9124 

One Hundred Eighteenth Congress 

of the 

United States of America 

AT THE SECOND SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday, 

the third day of January, two thousand and twenty-four 

An Act 

To name the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic 

in Auburn, California, as the ‘‘Louis A. Conter VA Clinic’’. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

Congress finds the following: 

(1) Louis ‘‘Lou’’ Anthony Conter was born on September 

13, 1921, in Ojibwa, Wisconsin. 

(2) Lt. Commander Lou Conter, the last remaining survivor 

of the attack on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, was an 

American hero. 

(3) On that fearful day, Petty Officer Conter helped evacuate shipmates who were blinded, wounded, or burned, even 

restraining some of his fellow shipmates from jumping overboard into the burning sea. 

(4) In the days after the attack, he helped with recovering 

bodies and putting out fires. Lou Conter’s heroic actions saved 

the lives of many of his shipmates on December 7, 1941. 

(5) Following Pearl Harbor, Conter continued serving 

during WWII in New Guinea and in Europe as an enlisted 

naval aviation pilot assigned to VP-11, a ‘‘Black Cat’’ Squadron. 

(6) Lou Conter would be awarded with the Distinguished 

Flying Cross for actively taking part in the rescue of 219 

Australians trapped by Japanese troops in New Guinea. 

(7) Later, in the Korean War, he served on the USS Bon 

Homme Richard as both an intelligence officer and a navy 

aviation pilot. Following his service in the Korean War, he 

served as a military intelligence advisor to three Presidents: 

Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. 

(8) During the 1950s, Lou Conter played a prominent role 

in the establishment and development of the Navy Survival, 

Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training program. 

(9) In addition to the Distinguished Flying Cross, he was 

awarded the Navy Commendation Medal and became the first 

recipient of the USS Arizona Medal of Freedom. 

(10) Louis Conter retired from the Navy in 1967 after 

serving 28 years as a Lieutenant Commander. 

(11) Following his retirement, he generously gave his time 

to share his personal experiences at veterans’ ceremonies and 

by giving lectures to students. 
H. R. 9124—2 

(12) Lieutenant Commander Conter’s lectures were popular 

with generations of local students who were equally fascinated 

and enthralled by his first-person accounts. 

(13) He is eminently deserving of recognition for his decades 

of service to a grateful nation. 

(14) Lieutenant Commander Conter passed away in Grass 

Valley, California on April 1, 2024. 

SEC. 2. NAME OF DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMUNITYBASED OUTPATIENT CLINIC, AUBURN, CALIFORNIA. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Auburn, California, shall after the date of the 

enactment of this Act be known and designated as the ‘‘Louis 

A. Conter VA Clinic’’. Any reference to such clinic in any law, 

regulation, map, document, record, or other paper of the United 

States shall be considered to be a reference to the Louis A. Conter 

VA Clinic. 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.