George Norton

George Norton grew up in Smith Center, Kansas. At the end of the fall semester of his senior year in 1942, North left Smith Center for Kansas City to join the Navy at 17 years old. 

The Navy sent him back and called him up on February 16, 1943. North went to boot camp in Farragut Idaho, then gunnery school in San Diego, California. After a 30 day leave, he transferred to Treasure Island, California, and was assigned his first ship the SS Ben Holladay. In December 1943, Norton transferred to the SS Joseph Snelling for the duration of World War II as Seaman 1st Class. 

Aboard the SS Joseph Snelling, they were under constant attack by the Japanese suicide planes. They got credit for shooting down 3 1/2 kamikazes before they were hit by a kamikaze off the coast of Okinawa. The plan hit in the No. 1 cargo hold. The plane had a 40 lb and 500 lb bomb aboard. About 10 seconds before the plan hit them, North was hit in the eye by a piece of shrapnel. As the pointer on a 50 caliber gun, the gunnery officer was giving him treatment (they had no corpsman doctor) when the kamikaze hit the cargo boom on the starboard side of the ship and sent it into the cargo hold. The 40lb bomb exploded and fire was mast-high. When Norton had his first aid done, he was told to return to duty. The stevedores eventually had the fire put out and were down clearing out the cargo hold. What they did not know was a 500lb bomb buried in a load of timber had not exploded. That morning, two other nearby ships in the anchorage had also been hit by kamikaze planes.