Potts had enlisted two years earlier, when he was 19, and was assigned to the USS Arizona, on which he served as a crane operator. On the day of the Japanese attack, December 7, 1941, Potts was on nearby Ford Island, loading a boat to take supplies to the aircraft carrier.

A Japanese torpedo which hit a gun magazine, and the carrier went down in 9 minutes, killing 1,177 aboard. Some were thrown into the water. Potts and his crewmembers loaded as many sailors as he could into his boat and transported them to a nearby island. After the ocean water stopped burning, he switched to transporting dead bodies to shore. The Pearl Harbor attack prompted the United States to declare war on Japan and then Germany and Italy. The U.S. joined the Allied Powers, including the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, in fighting against the Axis Powers in World War II. The Allies were eventually successfully, and the war ended in 1945, three-and-one-half years after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The USS Arizona was the last ship to which Potts was assigned. He continued to serve in the Navy, in the port director's office, until the end of the war. He left the Navy after the war and worked at a car sales company.

Potts is survived by his wife, Doris, to whom he was married for 66 years. He was one of two survivors of the Arizona attack still alive. The other is Lou Conter, who is 101 and lives in California.