HONOLULU (AP) —

Ken Potts, one of the last two remaining survivors of the USS Arizona battleship, which sank during the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 102.

Howard Kenton Potts died Friday at the home in Provo, Utah, that he shared with his wife of 66 years, according to Randy Stratton, whose late father, Donald Stratton, was Potts' Arizona shipmate and close friend.

Related video above: Americans remembered the Pearl Harbor attack on its 81st anniversary in December 2022

Stratton said Potts "had all his marbles" but lately was having a hard time getting out of bed. When Stratton spoke to Potts on his birthday, April 15, he was happy to have made it to 102.

"But he knew that his body was kind of shutting down on him, and he was just hoping that he could get better but (it) turned out not," Stratton said.

Potts was born and raised in Honey Bend, Illinois, and enlisted in the Navy in 1939.

He was working as a crane operator shuttling supplies to the Arizona the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when the Pearl Harbor attack happened, according to a 2021 article by the Utah National Guard.

In a 2020 oral history interview with the American Veterans Center, Potts said a loudspeaker ordered sailors back to their ships so he got on a boat.

"When I got back to Pearl Harbor, the whole harbor was afire," He said in the interview. "The oil had leaked out and caught on fire and was burning."

Dozens of ships either sank, capsized or were damaged in the bombing of the Hawaii naval base, which catapulted the U.S. into World War II.

Sailors were tossed or forced to jump into the oily muck below, and Potts and his fellow sailors pulled some to safety in their boat.

The Arizona sank just nine minutes after being bombed, and its 1,177 dead account for nearly half the servicemen killed in the attack. Today the battleship still sits where it sank eight decades ago, with more than 900 dead entombed inside.

Potts recalled decades later that some people were still giving orders in the midst of the attack but there was also a lot of chaos. He carried his memories of the attack over the course of his long life.

"Even after I got out of the Navy, out in the open, and heard a siren, I'd shake," he said.

Stratton noted that the only remaining survivor from the Arizona is now Lou Conter, who is 101 and living in California.

"This is history. It's going away," Stratton said, adding: "And once (Conter is) gone, who tells all their stories?"

Several dozen Arizona survivors have had their ashes interred on the sunken battleship so they could join their shipmates, but Potts didn't want that, according to Stratton.

"He said he got off once, he's not going to go back on board again," he said.

Stratton said many Arizona survivors shared a similar dry sense of humor. That included his own father, who was severely burned in the attack and also did not want to return to the ship as ashes in an urn.

"'I've been cremated once. I'm not going to be cremated twice,'" Donald Stratton joked, according to the younger Stratton, before his death in 2020 at age 97.

"They had that all throughout their lives. They had the sense of humor, and they knew sooner or later they would pass," Randy Stratton said. "Our job now is to keep their memories alive."

Potts is survived by his wife, Doris. Information on other survivors was not immediately available.

Thousands of women from all ethnic backgrounds served in World War II, with their contributions and bravery often being overlooked.

But there's a new push to give recognition 75 years later.

The Women's Army Corps (WAC) all-Black 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion members are among those women who served.

"To understand the story of the 6888th, we have to understand what was going on in the country at the time," said Army Col. Ret. Edna Cummings. "In the United States, Jim Crow segregation was the law, so the military was segregated not only by race but also by gender."

The "Six Triple Eight" was the first and only all-Black WAC unit deployed overseas during WWII. Under the Command of Maj. Charity Adams, the 850-member group, was first sent to Birmingham, England, in 1945.

Their mission was to sort years of backlogged mail stacked in warehouses — millions of letters and packages sent to U.S. soldiers and other personnel.

"The chain of command said, 'If we don't clear this backlog, the troop morale is going to remain low because that vital communication was lost to and from the United States,'" Cummings said. "The letters weren't making it to the troops, and the troops could not send letters home — so nobody at the United States knew what was going on."

As Allied forces drove across Europe, ever-changing locations hampered mail delivery to service members.

The task was a logistical nightmare, with many letters addressed to familiar names like John Smith, or simply "Junior, U.S. Army" or "Buster, U.S. Army."

Alva Moore Stevenson's mother, Lydia Esther Thornton, was a member of the Six Triple Eight. An Afro-Mexican woman, Thornton, chose to join the Black unit over a white team when given the option.

"Just having to imagine, wherever you were serving in the European Theater, and you weren't hearing from your family," she said. "I can't imagine."

Implementing a highly-effective system, the women processed about 65,000 pieces of mail per shift, amounting to 195,000 pieces per day.

"Because of the racial segregation, they were self-sustaining. So they not only had to figure out how to direct the mail and to sort the mail and to route the mail, but they also had to be self-sustaining," Cummings said. "In Europe, the Six Triple Eight had to set up their city, a mini-installation. They had to feed themselves, take care of their vehicles, drive themselves. So there was little help."

Given a six-month deadline, they finished in three, all while fighting racial and gender discrimination.

Their pioneering service paved the way for women like Cummings, leading the campaign to recognize the unit with Congressional Gold Medal. She helped create a documentary on Six Triple Eight's story.

"Regardless of gender, race, color, creed, ethnicity, the 6888th performed above and beyond. They did something that no one else could do," Cummings said. "The 6888th broke records, mail-sorting records."

A staunch advocate of the campaign, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, introduced the bill in the Senate, where it passed unanimously. He says their efforts ensured that people like his mother and father could communicate during the war.

Only six women from the 6888th are alive today.

"It's important to us because it honors our mom and what she stood for, which was the love of country, love of family," Stevenson said. "I wish she would've been here, but I know she would think it's a lot of, much to do about nothing. But I wish she would've been, been here for this."

In the House, 17 more co-sponsors are needed for legislation for a vote.

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii —

A few dozen survivors of Pearl Harbor are expected to gather Tuesday at the site of the Japanese bombing 80 years ago to remember those killed in the attack that launched the U.S. into World War II.

Herb Elfring, 99, said he's glad to return to Pearl Harbor considering he almost didn't live through the aerial assault.

"It was just plain good to get back and be able to participate in the remembrance of the day," Elfring told reporters over the weekend.

Elfring was in the Army, assigned to the 251st Coast Artillery, part of the California National Guard on Dec. 7, 1941. He recalled Japanese zero planes flying overhead and bullets strafing his Army base at Camp Malakole, a few miles down the coast from Pearl Harbor.

Elfring, who lives in Jackson, Michigan, said he has returned to Hawaii about 10 times to attend the annual memorial ceremony hosted by the Navy and the National Park Service.

About 30 survivors and about 100 other veterans of the war were expected to join him this year.

They will observe a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the same minute the attack began decades ago. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro is expected to deliver the keynote speech.

The bombing killed more than 2,300 U.S. troops. Nearly half — or 1,177 — were Marines and sailors serving on the USS Arizona, a battleship moored in the harbor.

Several women who helped the war effort by working in factories have come to Hawaii to participate in the remembrance this year.

Mae Krier, who built B-17s and B-29s at a Boeing plant in Seattle, said it took the world a while to credit women for their work.

"And we fought together as far as I'm concerned. But it took so long to honor what us women did. And so of course, I've been fighting hard for that, to get our recognition," said Krier, who is now 95. "But it was so nice they finally started to honor us."

This year's ceremony takes place as a strong storm packing high winds and extremely heavy rains hits Hawaii, flooding roads and downing power lines. Navy spokesperson Brenda Way told The Associated Press in an email Monday that she has heard of no discussion of canceling the event because of the storms.

HONOLULU —

Related video above: Pearl Harbor families push for identification

When Japanese bombs began falling on Pearl Harbor, U.S. Navy Seaman 1st Class David Russell first sought refuge below deck on the USS Oklahoma.

But a split-second decision on that December morning 80 years ago changed his mind, and likely saved his life.

"They started closing that hatch. And I decided to get out of there," Russell, now 101, said in a recent interview.

Within 12 minutes his battleship would capsize under a barrage of torpedoes. Altogether 429 sailors and Marines from the Oklahoma would perish — the greatest death toll from any ship that day other than the USS Arizona, which lost 1,177.

Russell plans to return to Pearl Harbor on Tuesday for a ceremony in remembrance of the more than 2,300 American troops killed in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack that launched the U.S. into World War II.

About 30 survivors and 100 other veterans from the war are expected to observe a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the minute the attack began.

Survivors, now in their late 90s or older, stayed home last year due to the coronavirus pandemic and watched a livestream of the event instead.

Russell is traveling to Hawaii with the Best Defense Foundation, a nonprofit founded by former NFL Linebacker Donnie Edwards that helps World War II veterans revisit their old battlefields.

He recalls heading topside when the attack started because he was trained to load anti-aircraft guns and figured he could help if any other loader got hurt.

But Japanese torpedo planes dropped a series of underwater missiles that pummeled the Oklahoma before he could get there. Within 12 minutes, the hulking battleship capsized.

"Those darn torpedoes, they just kept hitting us and kept hitting us. I thought they'd never stop," Russell said. "That ship was dancing around."

Russell clambered over and around toppled lockers while the battleship slowly rolled over.

"You had to walk sort of sideways," he said.

Once he got to the main deck, he crawled over the ship's side and eyed the USS Maryland moored next door. He didn't want to swim because leaked oil was burning in the water below. Jumping, he caught a rope hanging from the Maryland and escaped to that battleship without injury.

He then helped pass ammunition to the Maryland's anti-aircraft guns.

After the battle, Russell and two others went to Ford Island, next to where the battleships were moored, in search of a bathroom. A dispensary and enlisted quarters there had turned into a triage center and place of refuge for hundreds of wounded, and they found horribly burned sailors lining the walls. Many would die in the hours and days ahead.

"Most of them wanted a cigarette, and I didn't smoke at that time but I, uh, I got a pack of cigarettes and some matches, and I lit their cigarettes for them," Russell said. "You feel for those guys, but I couldn't do anything. Just light a cigarette for 'em and let 'em puff the cigarettes."

Russell still thinks about how lucky he was. He ponders why he decided to go topside on the Oklahoma, knowing most of the men who stayed behind likely were unable to get out after the hatch closed.

In the first two days after the bombing, a civilian crew from the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard rescued 32 men trapped inside the Oklahoma by cutting holes in its hull. But many others perished. Most of those who died were buried in anonymous Honolulu graves marked as "unknowns" because their remains were too degraded to be identified by the time they were removed from the ship between 1942 and 1944.

In 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency exhumed 388 sets of these remains in hopes of identifying them with the help of DNA technology and dental records. They succeeded with 361.

Russell's brother-in-law was among them. Fireman 1st Class Walter "Boone" Rogers was in the fireroom, which got hit by torpedoes, Russell said. The military identified his remains in 2017, and he's since been reburied at Arlington National Cemetery.

Russell remained in the Navy until retiring in 1960. He worked at Air Force bases for the next two decades and retired for good in 1980.

His wife, Violet, passed away 22 years ago, and he now lives alone in Albany, Oregon. He drives himself to the grocery store and the local American Legion post in a black Ford Explorer while listening to polka music at top volume. When he's not hanging out with other veterans at the legion, he reads military history and watches TV. He keeps a stack of 500-piece puzzles to keep his mind sharp.

For decades, Russell didn't share much about his experiences in World War II because no one seemed to care. But the images from Pearl Harbor still haunt him, especially at night.

"When I was in the VA hospital there in San Francisco, they said, 'We want you to talk about World War II.' And I said, I told them, I said, 'When we talk about it, people don't believe us. They just walk away.' So now people want to know more about it so we're trying to talk about it. We're trying to talk about it, and we're just telling them what we saw," he said. "You can't forget it."

SOUTHLAKE, Tex. — The superintendent of a Texas school district apologized after a school administrator told teachers they would need to provide "opposing" views to the Holocaust if they had any books referring to the horrific event.

Gina Peddy, the executive director of curriculum and instruction for the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, made the statement during a training session.

NBC News published a recording of the training session, where a person could be heard saying, "How do you oppose the Holocaust?”

Peddy implied a book showing an "opposing" view of the Holocaust would keep the district in compliance with a new Texas law.

The law states, "teachers who choose to discuss current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs shall, to the best of their ability, strive to explore such issues from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective."

Following news reports about the training session, the school district's superintendent offered an apology.

"As the Superintendent, I express my sincere apology regarding the online article and news story. During the conversations with teachers, comments made were in no way to convey the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history," a statement on the school district's Twitter account reads.

The trial has begun for a 100-year-old man who is accused of being an accessory to murder during World War II.

Josef S. was a Nazi SS guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany during the war.

He was reportedly 21 when he began serving as a guard in 1942.

Josef S. is charged with more than 3,500 counts of accessory to murder.

According to the BBC, Josef S. does not plan to address the allegations during the hearing. However, he is expected to speak about his “personal circumstances” Friday.

A medical evaluation was done on the suspect, which confirmed that he was fit to stand trial, which is expected to go until January.

A World War II hero was recognized on Wednesday just days before his 102nd birthday.

Valdemar DeHerrera was born in 1919 in Costilla, New Mexico.

"Still, he's very independent, uses a walker, but he loves being outdoors, indoors. He's just a wonderful inspiration to all of us," said his granddaughter, Pamela DeHerrera.

Part of that inspiration is DeHerrera’s story, it's one of hope, as he is the oldest survivor of the Bataan Death March in New Mexico's Taos County.

"He was captured and became a prisoner of war. He was there for almost four years before he was released," Pamela DeHerrera said.

During his time as a prisoner of war, he was nearly killed three times.

Each time he was saved by what he calls a guardian angel.

Once he was freed from a prison camp. He weighed 80 pounds.

"I think the biggest thing I hope people take away from his life is that he is a true hero and not just because of the war, but his everyday life," Pamela said.

And his heroism was recognized on Wednesday by the community of Taos, as he was honored by the city as an unsung hero.

"It's always such a great honor to him when anybody honors him for the things he has done, even the horrific things he had been through. But it makes us all very proud and makes him proud," Pamela said.

That pride extends to DeHerrea's whole family; his eight kids, 18 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

"His love of God and his faith has gotten him through all the adjustments from being back and always also the love of family, all of us, especially myself. You know, the love of our family that keeps us all close," Pamela said.

DeHerrera will officially turn 102 this Friday, his family plans to have a celebration for him.

BOLOGNA, Italy —

For more than seven decades, Martin Adler treasured a back-and-white photo of himself as a young American soldier with a broad smile with three impeccably dressed Italian children he is credited with saving as the Nazis retreated northward in 1944.

On Monday, the 97-year-old World War II veteran met the three siblings — now octogenarians themselves — in person for the first time since the war.

Adler held out his hand to grasp those of Bruno, Mafalda and Giuliana Naldi for the joyful reunion at Bologna's airport after a 20-hour journey from Boca Raton, Florida. Then, just as he did as a 20-year-old soldier in their village of Monterenzio, he handed out bars of American chocolate.

"Look at my smile," Adler said of the long-awaited in-person reunion, made possible by the reach of social media.

It was a happy ending to a story that could easily have been a tragedy.

The very first time the soldier and the children saw each other, in 1944, the three faces peeked out of a huge wicker basket where their mother had hidden them as soldiers approached. Adler thought the house was empty, so he trained his machine gun on the basket when he heard a sound, thinking a German soldier was hiding inside.

"The mother, Mamma, came out and stood right in front of my gun to stop me (from) shooting," Adler recalled. "She put her stomach right against my gun, yelling, 'Bambinis! Bambinis! Bambinis!' pounding my chest," Adler recalled.

"That was a real hero, the mother, not me. The mother was a real hero. Can you imagine you standing yourself in front of a gun and screaming 'Children! No!'" he said.

Adler still trembles when he remembers that he was only seconds away from opening fire on the basket. And after all these decades, he still suffers nightmares from the war, said his daughter, Rachelle Donley.

The children, aged 3 to 6 when they met, were a happy memory. His company stayed on in the village for a while and he would come by and play with them.

Giuliana Naldi, the youngest, is the only one of the three with any recollection of the event. She recalls climbing out of the basket and seeing Adler and another U.S. soldier, who has since died.

"They were laughing," Naldi, now 80, remembers. "They were happy they didn't shoot."

She, on the other hand, didn't quite comprehend the close call.

"We weren't afraid for anything," she said.

She also remembers the soldier's chocolate, which came in a blue and white wrapper.

"We ate so much of that chocolate,'' she laughed.

Donley decided during the COVID-19 lockdown to use social media to try to track down the children in the old black-and-white photo, starting with veterans' groups in North America.

Eventually the photo was spotted by an Italian journalist who had written a book on World War II. He was able to track down Adler's regiment and where it had been stationed from a small detail in another photograph. The smiling photo was then published in a local newspaper, leading to the discovery of the identities of the three children, who by then were grandparents themselves.

They shared a video reunion in December, and waited until the easing of pandemic travel rules made the trans-Atlantic trip possible.

"I am so happy and so proud of him. Because things could have been so different in just a second. Because he hesitated, there have been generations of people," Donley said.

The serendipity isn't lost on Giuliana Naldi's 30-year-old granddaughter, Roberta Fontana, one of six children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren who descended from the three children hidden in the wicker basket.

"Knowing that Martin could have shot and that none of my family would exist is something very big," Fontana said. "It is very emotional."

During his stay in Italy, Adler will spend some time in the village where he was stationed, before traveling on to Florence, Naples and Rome, where he hopes to meet Pope Francis.

"My dad really wants to meet the pope," Donley said. "He wants to share his message of peace and love. My dad is all about peace."

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OVER 487,000 DOSES HAVE BEEN ADMINISTERED IN LOUISIANA. SULA: A LITTLE OVER A 5TH OF THAT, 103,000 PEOPLE HAVE GOTTEN BOTH DOSES. AND AMONG THOSE WHO HAVE ROLLED UP THEIR SLEEVES, THIS HERO, A 97-YEAR-OLD WORLD WAR TWO VETERAN. AND AS SHAY O’CONNOR FOUND OUT, THIS DAY HAS EVEN MORE SIGNIFICIANCE, TODAY HE GAVE THE VACCINE A SHOT, BUT YEARS AGO IT WAS LOVE. REPORTER: THIS IS HIS 74TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY. ONEILL J. WILLIAMS’ WIFE IS ACTUALLY RECOVERING FROM COVID19 AS WE SPEAK. SO HE ADMITS BECOMING VACCINATED WILL HELP TO PROTECT HIM AND HIS LOVED ONES. >> NO DIFFERENCE, I JUST FELT A LITTLE PRICK AND THAT WAS IT. REPORTER: WORLD WAR II VETERAN ONIELL J. WILLIAMS WAS ALL SMILES ON TUESDAY AFTER RECEIVING HIS SECOND AND LAST DOSE OF THE COVID19 VACCINE. NEXT ON HIS AGENDA FOR THE DAY, -- FOR THE DAY. >> GO HOME AND HAVE SUPPER. REPORTER: THE 97-YEAR-OLD ALSO CELEBRATING A DAY NEAR AND DEAR, HIS 74TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY WITH HIS WIFE. WHO IS CURRENTLY GETTING COVID19. -- STRONGER AND STRONGER FOLLOWING HER OWN BOUT WITH COVID-19. >> SHE IS GETTING BETTER. REPORTER: NOW HER VACCINATION CAN SERVE AS A WAY TO PROTECT HIM AND OTHERS. HE IS ONE OF AT LEAST 11,000 VETS AT THE V.A. WHO HAVE RECEIVED ONE OR BOT DOSES OF THE COVID-19 VACCINE SINCE MID DECEMBER. HEALTH OFFICIALS SAY THEY HAVE BEEN USING A CALL CENTER TO CONTACT THOUSANDS OF VETERANS ACROSS THE STATE AND WITHIN THE SYSTEM TO SET UP VACCINATIONS. SO FAR, SO GOOD. >> OF THOSE THAT WE HAVE REACHED, ABOUT 75% HAVE SAID YES TO GETTING THE VACCINE. THAT IS WHAT WE WANT TO HEAR. REPORTER: AND WITH LOTS OF DOSES SENT FROM THE GOVERNMENT, VETERANS ARE ABLE TO GET SCHEDULED AND VACCINATED AS QUICK AS THEY CALL. ONE CHALLENGE REMAINS IN GETTING THOSE WHO ARE HESITANT ON BOARD WITH THE DOSE. >> A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE WAITING TO SEE A LITTLE BIT MORE INFO. THE VACCINES WERE DEVELOPED REALLY QUICKLY. WE FEEL VERY CONVINCED ABOUT THE SAFETY, THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE VACCINE. REPORTER: BUT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN SHIELDED AWAY FOR MOST OF THE PANDEMIC, A NEW LIFE STARTS HERE. >> I HOPE SO. IT HAS BEEN ROUGH. REPORTER: THE V.A. HAS BEGAN ADMINISTERING VACCINES TO VETERANS 65 AND UP AT THIS POINT. ALSO THOSE WHO ARE YOUNGER WITH CERTAIN MEDICAL CONDITIONS AND VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO SEE IF YOU QUALIFY. REPORTING FROM

'Feels good': WWII veteran receives his second vaccine dose as wife recovers from COVID-19

Updated: 6:46 AM EST Feb 4, 2021

World War II Army veteran O'Neill J. Williams was all smiles on Tuesday after receiving his second and last dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. "The shot felt like it was no difference. I just felt a little prick. That was it. Like the last time," said Williams. The 97-year-old was also celebrating a day near and dear — his 74th wedding anniversary with his wife. She recently had her own battle with COVID-19."She is getting better after having double pneumonia," Williams said.Now Williams' vaccine can serve as a way to protect him and others. Watch the video above for more on this story.

World War II Army veteran O'Neill J. Williams was all smiles on Tuesday after receiving his second and last dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

"The shot felt like it was no difference. I just felt a little prick. That was it. Like the last time," said Williams.

The 97-year-old was also celebrating a day near and dear — his 74th wedding anniversary with his wife. She recently had her own battle with COVID-19.

"She is getting better after having double pneumonia," Williams said.

Now Williams' vaccine can serve as a way to protect him and others.

Watch the video above for more on this story.