Kenton “Ken” Potts, one of the last two surviving crew members of the USS Arizona, died late Thursday night at the age of 102.
Pearl Harbor National Memorial spokesperson David Kilton said the family notified the National Park Service of his death Friday morning and that the flag over the USS Arizona Memorial will be flown at half-staff in honor of his life and service through Friday.
Born and raised in the small town of Honey Bend, Ill., Potts enlisted in the Navy at the age of 18 on Oct. 4, 1939. After training he was assigned to the USS Arizona on Dec. 31, 1939, where he worked as a crane operator.
He had spent the night of Dec. 6, 1941, ashore. In a 2020 video interview with the American Veterans Center, Potts recalled waking up to the sound of honking horns and turned on the radio to hear a call for all Navy personnel to return to their ships.
He caught a cab with fellow sailors that he recalled was stuffed with eight people. He said that “ordinarily at that time of the day, there was nothing going on, (not) much movement. That morning there was plenty of movement, and it was (on) all the loudspeakers, all the radios, that this was not a drill — this was a real thing.”
When he returned to Pearl Harbor, the Japanese navy’s attack on the base was already well underway. Potts quickly boarded a small boat in the harbor and told fellow sailors he was on his way to the Arizona.
Leaking oil from the ships already had ignited. As the boat navigated the inferno, those on board heard the cries of sailors in the oily water below, and they tried to rescue as many as they could. Potts said as he tried to get to the Arizona, “we picked people out of the water along the way, but there was men from all these different ships on that same boat.”
Eventually, the boat dropped off Potts on the Arizona, where he rejoined his crew as they fought. He was near the ship’s stern on the fantail when the Arizona was struck with a Japanese bomb that detonated its onboard munitions, resulting in a massive explosion that tore through the vessel.
As flames raged and the Arizona began to sink, Potts and fellow sailors abandoned ship and made their way to Ford Island. After the initial explosion, the Arizona continued to burn for more than a day. Of the 2,390 Americans killed in the surprise attack on Oahu, 1,177 were members of the Arizona’s crew.
After the attack Potts was assigned to help a diving crew tasked with retrieving bodies from the Arizona and other ships, which he recalled as the worst job he ever had. The Arizona was the first and only ship Potts ever served on. The Navy assigned him to the port director’s office where he served until the end of the war in 1945.
Pearl Harbor National Memorial historian Daniel Martinez told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he recalled Potts as “very typical of a USS Arizona survivor. Humble, very quiet about his life.”
“They were unified by a tragedy of unspeakable horror,” Martinez said of Potts and other survivors. “To survive the Arizona is similar to those that survived the Titanic. The horror of what happened to the ship and what happened to the crew members was something that only few ships in American history have ever gone through.”
But Martinez said the experience also spurred many survivors to ensure that they lived out their lives to the fullest after coming so close to death and having so many friends who would never have the chance. He recalled when 60 survivors came to Oahu for the 50th anniversary of the attack in 1991 — the largest group that he had seen attend the ceremony.
“They were so full of life, they were happy to be there, they were happy to see their shipmates,” Martinez said. “It was like a fraternity for them, and their college was World War II.”
After the war, Potts worked as an auto salesman, and for the past 56 years lived in Provo, Utah, with his wife, Doris. He celebrated his 102nd birthday April 14.
Aileen Utterdyke, president and CEO at Pacific Historic Parks, a nonprofit that supports the USS Arizona Memorial and other historic sites in Hawaii, said in a statement that “we are saddened to learn that the second to the last USS Arizona survivor is no longer physically with us. Our prayers go to Ken’s family and the hundreds of people who knew and admired him. … We are resolved to make sure that Ken, along with all members of our Greatest Generation, are never forgotten.”
With Potts’ death, Lou Conter, 101, is the last known surviving crew member of the USS Arizona. Conter now finds it difficult to travel and was unable to attend 2022’s anniversary of the attack, but told attendees in recorded remarks that “we need to make future generations understand what Pearl Harbor really was about and what was at stake.”
