Memorial Day- Remembering Pearl Harbor and Those Who Perished.
U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor
Another day in paradise, fair skies and ambient temperatures promised just that, to those awakening that peaceful Sunday morning on the Pacific island of Oahu. Little did they know that 300 miles off of their northern coast, hovered the most powerful carrier task force ever assembled, six of Japan's first-line aircraft carriers with over 420 war planes, fast battleships, cruisers, destroyers and fuel tankers lurked. An advance placement of submarines were lying in wait to sink any American ships that might escape from Pearl Harbor. The first wave of over 180 aircraft was launched before first light and flew south towards their targets. A second wave of similar numbers of aircraft brought up from the hangars beneath the flight decks followed, launching into the mornings early light.
At 07:55 (local time), December 7, 1941, the first bombs were dropped from attacking Japanese aircraft on the American fleet docked at Pearl Harbor. Just 75 minutes later the entire U.S. Pacific fleet and aircraft were damaged or destroyed, 2,403 soldiers, sailors and civilians were killed and 1,178 wounded. The Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor catapulted the United States into WWII and as Roosevelt declared, "a date which will live in infamy."
Howard Kenton Potts was born on April 15, 1921 on a small farm in Honey Bend, Illinois. The farmhouse was without running water or electricity. He attended a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade. He didn't enroll in high school because it would have required him to walk 14 miles round-trip every day. On October 4, 1939 just seven months after his 20th. birthday, Ken, as he was called by his friends, enlisted in the Navy. That December, he sailed from San Pedro, California, as fate would have it, aboard the U.S.S. Arizona, the only ship on which he would ever serve.
Ken, a boatswain's mate and crane operator had been on leave in Honolulu for two days. He was on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, when he was awakened by blaring sirens and loudspeakers ordering all Navy personnel back to their ships. "This is not a drill, this is the real thing," he recalled thinking to himself, as he told his story to an interviewer from the American Veterans Center in 2020. "The oil had leaked out and caught on fire and was burning. Going back to the ship, we had to drag sailors out of the oily water. We couldn't think much about it. You don't think much of anything, I guess. You're in shock. All you worried about was staying alive." Attempting to navigate through the flaming harbor, Potts and other crewmen pulled men from the water and took them ashore on Ford Island," said a spokesman from the Park Service.
Struck by Japanese bombers, the Arizona toppled over in nine minutes and burned for two days before sinking. After fishing dozens of survivors from the harbor, Mr. Potts later dived into the ship to search for more, but found only bodies. The Arizona's death toll accounted for nearly half of the military personnel killed that day. Only 93 of those aboard the ship at at the time survived.
The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial draws some 1.7 million visitors every year. For decades the submerged Arizona continued to shed "black tears" in the form of a quart of oil which leaked from somewhere inside the hull every day. It is estimated that 900 crew members lie at the bottom of Pearl Harbor entombed aboard the Arizona.
As for Mr. Potts, he just recently passed away on April 21st of this year, at his home in Provo, Utah, just 6 days after his 102nd birthday. His shipmate Lou Conter 101 years old, is believed to be the only living survivor among the Arizona crewmen who escaped the inferno that fateful Sunday morning.
It is essential that we recognize the debt we owe to so many who fought and died in so many wars on behalf of this nation, defending our liberty and freedom. We are losing a generation who fought so nobly in the Second World War and soon there will be none.
Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
Like flowery fields the nations stand,
Pleased with the morning light;
The flowers beneath the mower's hand
Lie withering e'er 'tis night.
by Isaac Watts
Rest in peace all you who paid the ultimate sacrifice that dreadful day. I'm sure they are proud of Mr, Potts who survived to live a long and productive life. We mourn and we will never forget your sacrifice and we toast, in your names, the life of Boatswain's Mate, First Class, Howard Kenton Potts, U.S.N., shipmate, friend, husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.