Potts returned to service after Pearl Harbor to participate in the invasion of their Philipines
One of those two surviving survivors from the USS Arizona celebrated his 100th birthday Thursday, with a personal message from the White House Secret Service to wish him on his special day.
Potts was aboard the craft when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, escaping with other sailors that were above-deck at the time.
Some 80 years later, there are just two living giants: Potts and Lou Conter, the latter turning 99 at September 2020.
Reaching the centennial landmark did not go undetected, and Stg. Jonathan Stockeland, a 35-year-old Marine Corps veteran, sent Potts a happy birthday filmed before the White House.
Stockeland fulfilled Potts in 2017 when he volunteered to give a”Veterans Tour” of the White House while he served as a member of the Secret Service.
He just later learned that the tour included lands of the USS Arizona.
Potts also met President Trump throughout the excursion.
Stockeland now says the highlight of his career has been giving that tour, which he concluded in the Map Room of the White House, where President Roosevelt would go for his daily briefings during World War II.
Potts will receive many video messages, but Stockeland’s message is a private one that will be shared with Potts and his family, a Secret Service spokesperson told Fox News.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Potts recovered stateside and got a medical release.
He reenlisted a year later, serving on a destroyer and fighting in the invasion of the Philippines, according to Stars and Stripes.
This past year, Potts saw another of his fellow survivors, Don Stratton, pass, leaving him and Lou Conter since the previous two.
“It’s important when you get old, as we are,” he said of his bond with his fellow survivors. “It’s especially important when you lose one.”
