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Stanley C. Norton

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Stanley Cook Norton
Born(1894-11-19)November 19, 1894
Falmouth, Maine[1]
DiedApril 4, 1978(1978-04-04) (aged 83)[2]
Portsmouth, New Hampshire[2]
AllegianceUnited States of America
Branch United States Navy
Years of service1914-1947
Rank Rear Admiral
CommandsUSS Pampanga[3]
USS Twiggs[4]
USS Salinas[5]
Destroyer Division 54 [6]
USS Trenton[7]
Awards Navy Cross[8]
Alma materUnited States Naval Academy[9]

Stanley Cook Norton (19 November 1894 – 4 April 1978),[2] was an American naval officer who served during World War II and reached the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy.[1]

Early life and education

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Stanley Cook Norton was born November 19, 1894, in Falmouth, Maine, to Frank K. and Flora Norton (née Cook).[citation needed]

Military career

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In 1914 he was accepted to the United States Naval Academy as a midshipman.[10] While at the academy, Norton participated both football and basketball.[9] "On March 4, 1917, the U.S. Congress authorized the academy to reduce its four-year program to graduating and to commissioning new Navy and Marine Corps officers in three years."[11] Because of this authorization, Norton and the rest of the class of 1918 graduated June 28, 1917.[11]

Upon early graduation from Annapolis, Norton was commissioned as an Ensign and assigned to the USS Montana.[12][13] Due to the Act of May 22, 1917, he, along with many service men, received a temporary promotion to Lieutenant in June 1918.[12] After his service on the Montana, he spent the next several years on various submarines, including the USS R-23,[14] USS O-16,[15] USS S-49[16] and USS S-31[17] as a prospective submarine commander.[18] In 1924, he was assigned to the submarine base at New London;[19] by 1927, he was commanding the gunboat USS Pampanga stationed in Hong Kong.[3] In 1932, he was assigned to command of USS Twiggs;[4] in 1934 he was a lieutenant commander and the gunnery officer of USS Richmond.[20][21] In 1938, he was promoted to Commander[22] and was assigned as a naval reserve instructor in 1939.[23]

Norton was a "brusque, no non-sense commander" known for his command of Destroyer Division 54.[6] Aboard his flagship, the USS Roper, he led Destroyer Division 54 in the successful attack and sinking of U-85,[24] "the first German submarine sunk in World War II by a United States man-of-war."[25] For this action, he, and the Roper's captain, were awarded the Navy Cross.[1][6][8][26][27][28] Norton was promoted to Captain on 15 June 1942[29] and commanded the USS Trenton from June 1943 to June 1944.[7]

Norton retired from the Navy after 30 years of service in July 1947, whereupon he was "placed, or advanced, upon the retired list to Rear Admiral in recognition of having been specially commended by the Secretary of the Navy or head of another executive department for performance of duty under in actual combat."[29]

Family

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Norton's son, Stanley C. Norton Jr., was born while Norton was stationed in Hong Kong and died in 2016.[30][31]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Stanley Cook Norton". Military Times Hall of Valor. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "Rear Admiral Stanley C. Norton". Vol. 90, no. 158. Portsmouth Herald. 5 April 1978. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  3. ^ a b "American Vessels in Chinese Waters". Des Moines Tribune. Des Moines, Iowa. 1927-04-04. p. 8.
  4. ^ a b "Naval Orders". The Long Beach Sun. Long Beach, California. 1932-01-09. p. 13.
  5. ^ "Fleet Oiler (AO) Photo Index". NavSource Naval History. 1941-10-30. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
  6. ^ a b c Hickam, Homer (1996). Torpedo junction : U-boat war off America's East Coast, 1942. Naval Institute Press. pp. 138–9. ISBN 1-55750-362-1.
  7. ^ a b "Trenton II (CL-11)". history.navy.mil. Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  8. ^ a b "Gets Cross For 'Successful Action'". No. 272. The Miami Herald. 1 September 1942. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  9. ^ a b The Lucky Bag. Annapolis: United States Naval Academy. 1918. p. 111. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  10. ^ "Sixteen Enter Naval Academy". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, Maryland. 1914-06-14. p. 2.
  11. ^ a b "U.S. Naval Academy During World War I". United States Naval Academy. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  12. ^ a b Register of the commission and warrant officers of the Navy of the United States. Washington DC: US Navy. 1919. pp. 84–85. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  13. ^ "The Naval Academy". Vol. 56, no. 45. Army and Navy Journal. 12 Jun 1919. p. 1582. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  14. ^ Register of the commission and warrant officers of the Navy of the United States. Washington DC: US Navy. 1920. pp. 64–65. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  15. ^ Register of the commission and warrant officers of the Navy of the United States. Washington DC: US Navy. 1921. pp. 60–1. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  16. ^ Register of the commission and warrant officers of the Navy of the United States. Washington DC: US Navy. 1923. pp. 60–1. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  17. ^ Register of the commission and warrant officers of the Navy of the United States. Washington DC: US Navy. 1924. p. 72. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  18. ^ "Ordered to Cavite". The Portsmouth Herald. 26 May 1926. p. 5. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  19. ^ "To Report Here Soon". The Portsmouth Herald. Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 1924-11-13. p. 4.
  20. ^ "War Department And Navy Orders". Daily Press. Newport News, Virginia. 1933-04-11. p. 6.
  21. ^ "Navy chief here from Denver on inspection trip". The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Colorado. 1935-06-23. p. 16.
  22. ^ "Ninety-Three Lieutenant Commanders To Be Promoted". The Honolulu Advertiser. Honolulu, Hawaii. 1938-02-20. p. 39.
  23. ^ "Naval Orders". News-Pilot. San Pedro, California. 1939-05-17. p. 10.
  24. ^ Bunch, Jim (2017). U-Boats off the Outer Banks: Shadows in the Moonlight. Arcadia Publishing. p. 138. ISBN 9781467137676.
  25. ^ Roscoe, Theodore (1953). United States destroyer operations in World War II. United States Naval Institute. pp. 74–75. ISBN 9780870217265. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  26. ^ "Gets Cross for 'Successful Action'". The Miami Herald. Miami, Florida. 1942-09-01. p. 2.
  27. ^ "Big Battle Against Submarine Menace". The Chico Enterprise. Chico, California. 1943-02-23. p. 2.
  28. ^ "Two Submarines Of Axis Are Sunk". The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, California. 1943-02-23. p. 4.
  29. ^ a b United States Bureau of Naval Personnel (1953). "Retired – Rear Admirals". Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 456.
  30. ^ "Stanley C. Norton Jr". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. August 11, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2021 – via legacy.com.
  31. ^ "Stanley C. Norton Jr". The News Journal. August 10, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2021 – via legacy.com.
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