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Vernon P. Norton of Farmington served in the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Mediterranean Sea as a Coxswain in the U.S. Coast
Guard during World War II, assigned to Escort Division 23.
"My brother and I volunteered for service
on Oct. 15, 1942, when he was 17 and I was 19. We
joined the U.S. Coast Guard together. I had
two other brothers in service at that time. We
all were overseas at the same time. My mother was proud to be a Four-Star mother.
"After boot camp, I had guard duty in
Philadelphia at district headquarters and also aboard foreign merchant ships while they
were in port, to prevent sabotage.
"I asked for duty aboard a ship and in
September of 1943 I was sent to the U.S. Naval destroyer training station at Norfolk, Va. In October, I was assigned to the U.S.S. Mills DE
383. I completed seven overseas voyages from
East Coast ports to the Mediterranean, Africa, Ireland, England, France and Portugal. We protected supply ships, oil tankers, cargo ships
and troop ships from enemy submarines and aircraft.
"As the war was nearing the end in Europe,
I asked for a transfer to a ship in the Pacific Ocean.
I wa assigned to the U.S.S. Gen. A. W. Brewster PA 155, a ship that was
being built at the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond, Calif.
My first voyage on the Brewster was through the Panama Canal back over to
Europe. We picked up a load of troops in
Bristol, England, went back again through the Panama Canal to the Pacific Ocean to New
Guinea and the Philippines.
"The war with Japan ended while we were in
the Philippine Sea. We took civilians and
service people aboard who had been prisoners of Japan and took them back to San Francisco.
[THE DAILY JOURNAL, St. Francois County., Wednesday, April 26, 1995]
