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Today's Featured Biography
Bruce Norton
Biography
Major Bruce H. “Doc” Norton, USMC (Ret.)
Bruce H. Norton was born on March 3rd 1948, and grew up in the rural township of North Scituate Rhode Island. Upon graduation from high school he attended Northeastern University, in Boston, Massachusetts.
In 1967, he enlisted in the United States Navy, attending basic training and Hospital Corps School at Great Lakes Naval Training Command. He was sent to Field Medical Service School, at Camp Lejeune, NC, before being station at the Naval Hospital Newport, Rhode Island.
In 1968, he volunteered for duty in Vietnam and joined 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company, then located in Quang Tri Province, in the Republic of South Vietnam. After participating in more than 15 long-range reconnaissance missions he attend scuba school, in the Philippines, and completed in Army’s basic parachutist’s course on Okinawa, Japan, before returning to Vietnam for his second tour of duty with 1st Force Reconnaissance Company. Wounded in July, 1970, he was medevacked to the Naval Hospital Yokosuka, Japan, until September, 1970.
Following his honorable discharge from the US Navy, in June, 1972, he attended the College of Charleston, as a Marine PLC (Platoon Leaders Course) Candidate. Graduating in December, 1974, he was commissioned a Lieutenant of Marines.
After graduating from the Basic School in July, 1975, Doc served at various posts and stations throughout the Corps to include 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines; 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion; Amphibious Warfare School; Command & Staff College and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California, where he retired in October, 1992.
Following his retirement, he served as Director of the Marine Corps Command Museum, at MCRD, San Diego, from 1993-1997, and subsequently taught military history at the University of San Diego. Moving to South Carolina, he then served a Marine Tactical Officer at the Citadel; the military college of South Carolina from 1997 – 2005.
He accepted a position as a Doctrinal Writer for the Marine Corps’ MAGTF Staff Training Program, at Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia, from 2006 until 2008. He was a senior writer at the Marine Corps’ Center for Lessons Learned. Transferring to the Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning, CAOCL, Doc assisted a team of curriculum developers in support of Marine operational forces until 2012, and taught second year students at Command and Staff College.
From 2012 – 1213 he worked at Command & Control Training & Education Center of Excellence (C2TECOE), until transferring to the FBI Academy, where he rewrote and edited the Special Agent and Intelligence Analysist Courses, now taught at the FBI academy.
Following that assignment, in 2014, he was assigned to the Drug Enforcement Agency (D.E.A.) Headquarters, where he was a Program Manager tasked to rewrite the DEA Laboratory Manuals.
Currently, Doc is employed as the Senior Information Systems Specialist and directs the Warfighting Section of Enlisted Professional Military Education, at Marine Corps University, in Quantico, VA.
As a prolific writer of Marine Corps history, he has authored;
Force Recon Diary, 1969
Force Recon Diary, 1970
One Tough Marine; the biography of 1st Sgt Don Hamblen, USMC
Sergeant Major, US Marines; the biography of Sgt.Maj. M. J. Jacques, USMC
Stingray: the History of Marine Reconnaissance efforts during the Vietnam War
I Am Alive! The biography of Sgt.Maj. Major Charles R. Jackson
Grown Gray in War; the biography of Marine MGySgt Len Maffioli
The Encyclopedia of American War Heroes
Proud to Serve; the Biography of FBI Special Agent, Craig M. Arnold
Diary of a Yankee Doughboy; the biography of Corporal Raymond Whitney Maker, United States Army.
His articles on small unit leadership and military history have appeared in the pages of the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Post & Courier and San Diego Union Newspapers, Leatherneck Magazine, and Military History Magazine.
He and his wife, Helen, live in Fredericksburg, VA, where she is the archeologist specialist at the Mary Washington Home, at Ferry Farms.
They are avid sportsmen and enjoy the shooting sports.
Doc’s personal decorations included:
Bronze Star (with Combat V)
Meritorious Service Medal
Purple Heart (2)
Navy Commendation Medal
Navy Achievement Medal
Combat Action Ribbon
Good Conduct Medal
Advanced Parachutist
US Navy Scuba Diver
Vietnamese Combat Jump Wings
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