It was 1919 when Milton R Norton purchased Myrtle Ellett's house at 306 LaVerne Avenue with his wife Susie. In October 1920 Susie gave birth to a son, Milton Jr. (known as Rand to distinguish him from his father).  While dad worked in the prestigious position of steam locomotive engineer, Junior progressed through the Alexandria school system, graduating from GWHS in 1940.  He took a clerical job with the Noland plumbing supply Co office on Arlington Ridge Road until the end of 1942 when he volunteered for the Navy.  They sent him to Norfolk to train as an aircraft radioman.  He returned to Alexandria on leave in March 1943 to marry Anne Marine Childs, who was living at the Norton home on LaVerne while awaiting his arrival.  On completion of training he was assigned to Bombing Squadron 127 (VB-127), equipped with PV-1 Ventura light bombers for anti-submarine patrols.  The squadron went to Boca Chica at Key West, then down to Natal on the coast of Brazil, leaving there for Port Lyautey in then-French Morocco, arriving on 6 September 1943.  By that time he had been promoted to aircraft radioman 2nd class.

World War Two Losses

Milton R Norton

Left, a PV-1 Lockheed Ventura.  Below, his entry in the 1940 GW High School yearbook

Three weeks later, on 29 September, Norton's Ventura crashed into a hilltop near Ben Ahmed, about 40 miles inland from Casablanca, while on an operational mission. All five crew members, including Milton Norton Jr, were killed. He was one month short of his 24th birthday..