Serving his country

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POCATELLO -- Delbert Norman bristles at being referred to as a hero.

"I'm no hero. The heroes are still over there," Norman said. "They just didn't come back."

"Over there" refers to the Pacific Theater in World War II, as well as the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.

Norman, 85, participated in all three of them.

Born and raised in Blackfoot, he enlisted in the Navy in December 1941 at the age of 17 with his 21-year-old brother, Frank, at their father's advice. Pearl Harbor had just been attacked.

"My father said, 'The draft's going to get Frank, so you may as well go in together and watch out for each other.'"

And watch out for each other they did, serving together in the Pacific for three years. Del and Frank were eventually split up in the wake of the Sullivan brothers tragedy, all five of whom died when the USS Juneau was sunk during the Battle of Guadacanal.

"I made the first wave at Iwo (Jima)," Norman said. "There were bodies stacked up on the beach like cordwood."

He recounts the attack of his ship by a Japanese plane in the Solomon Islands in 1942, describing the stream of tracers emanating from both sides.

"You're shooting at him and he's shooting at you," he said. "It was just like in the movies."

The plane was shot down into the water 100 yards or so short of his ship. Norman said he was so nervous after, he couldn't light his cigarette. Another officer came up to him and said, "Del, it's all over."

"That was my first action," Norman said.

Norman served in the Navy until 1945. He then went to Seattle to start work with the Military Sea Transportation Service, or MSTS, a civil service division of the Navy. For a good part of the next decade he transported goods and personnel throughout the Pacific.

The MSTS helped out during the Korean War, from 1954 to 1957. As that conflict ended, the situation in Vietnam was starting to heat up.

MSTS ships sailed to Hai Phong to help refugees escape to the south following the signing of the Geneva Accords' split of the nation into north and south political blocs. More than 300,000 refugees were relocated to the south by the Navy, MSTS and merchant marine.

"It was harder on me there," Norman said. "The Marshalls were a picnic in comparison."

He recounted how male refugees attempting to sneak through the Communist-controlled north's lines were shot, the women often violated, and mutilated by bayonet and machete.

In 1957, he came back stateside. The MSTS moved to San Francisco and Norman declined to relocate. Out of work, he took what he could find, painting houses or barns. A friend told him Boeing was hiring, so he applied.

"'What do you know?' they asked me. 'Nothing,' I said, 'but I can learn.'" He was hired, cleaning up at first. Not too long after, he was running a lathe.

He moved up through the ranks, eventually becoming a journeyman machinist.

"You don't get that very easy," he said. "I had a good job there at Boeing. I liked my work. I was going to school all the time."

Norman worked on numerous Boeing projects, including the 707, 727, 737 and 747. He also put in time on the supersonic transport, which Boeing finally sold off due to the problem with sonic booms.

Norman retired in 1985 and eventually made his way back home to Blackfoot. He is currently living in Quail Ridge Assisted Living. Much of his family is gone now, but he still keeps in steady contact with his two nephews, two nieces and a brother-in-law there.

"We're a tight-knit family," he said.

Although not a blood relative, he is close to Blackfoot resident and high school pal Hero Shiosaki.

"He's my Japanese brother," Norman said. "We're that close."

Norman said he and Shiosaki kept the Blackfoot VFW chapter alive when World War II vets had mostly passed away. The chapter now has in excess of 60 members.

He and Hero were the last two World War II vets in the VFW and kept the charter afloat.

Norman was a high school senior when he enlisted.

"I was supposed to graduate in '41. I graduated in '81." Norman said.

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