Final Salute

Robert Grant Norton
Born in Lubec, Maine, Robert Grant Norton worked as a maintenance mechanic for the American Can Company for five years before enlisting in the Navy on May 20, 1943. He was 27 years old and married, leaving behind his job and family to serve his country. He became a Seabee.

Official Military Personnel File photo of Robert Norton. National Archives and Records Administration

The Navy trained Norton as a carpenter before assigning him to the 103rd Naval Construction Battalion for additional instruction as a drafter. He eventually joined the 539th Naval Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit, becoming one of the Seabees who built and maintained the infrastructure that allowed American forces to operate across the Pacific. On December 28, 1943, Norton left Gulfport, Mississippi, and began the long journey to the Pacific. He crossed the equator and the International Date Line before reaching Ebon, a small atoll in the Marshall Islands, on February 7, 1944.

Norton and his fellow Seabees immediately went to work building and maintaining airfields, roads, ports, and other facilities that supported American logistical and amphibious operations. He spent approximately 21 months on Ebon before finally making the long journey home in October 1945. The Navy honorably discharged him, and he returned to Maine with the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon, American Area Ribbon, World War II Victory Medal, and authorization to wear the official Seabee insignia.

Seabees lower Hercules powder explosives over the side of an LCVP during construction of the Eniwetok Atoll airfield, February 1944. U.S. Navy Seabee Museum

After the war, Norton used the GI Bill to attend Franklin Technical Institute in Boston, where he earned an engineering degree. He worked in Massachusetts for several years before returning to Lubec in the early 1980s. There he became active in the local Congregational Christian Church and served as a deacon. Friends and neighbors remembered him as a quiet, generous man who was willing to give his time and talents to others.

By September 2001, Norton was 85 years old and the oldest victim of the terrorist attacks. He and his wife, Jacqueline, were traveling to California for a family wedding. They had flown from Bangor to Boston on September 10 before boarding American Airlines Flight 11 at Logan International Airport the following morning. The Boeing 767 departed at 7:59 a.m., bound for Los Angeles. At 8:46 a.m., hijackers crashed the aircraft into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Robert Grant Norton. Photo: Bangor Daily News via FindAGrave.com

Nearly six decades had passed since Norton left Maine for the Pacific. In the years between, he had returned home from war, built a career, raised a family, served his community, and lived the life he had fought to preserve. On September 11, he was simply a husband traveling with his wife to celebrate with family. His storied life ended that morning aboard Flight 11.