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Current data for Contributor
Smither, James (Interviewer)
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Current data for Creator
Norton, Jack
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Current data for Date
2008-12-15
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Current data for Description
Jack Norton was born in Ottawa County, Michigan, in 1920. He graduated from high school in 1937 and enlisted in the Navy in 1938. He trained as a machinist's mate and sailed first on a transport ship in the Pacific, then on the destroyer USS Barker from 1940 to 1943, engaging mostly in convoy escorts and antisubmarine patrols in the Pacific (including visits to China before Pearl Harbor) and Atlantic (sinking two U-Boats). He then transferred to the destroyer escort USS Henry R. Kenyon, and again served in the Atlantic and Pacific, witnessing a kamakaze attack at Okinawa and ending the war in the Philippines.