World War II Honoree

Albert Norton Chaston

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Salt Lake City, Utah

Honored By

Jeana Escobar

He was at age 15, in High School in Salt Lake City, Utah, and was registered in the ROTC. In winter 1943, he was accepted into the Navy V-12 Officer Training Program and sworn in as an Apprentice Seaman in the Navy Reserve. A few months later, at age 17, and graduation from high school, he received orders to report to the University of Idaho, Southern Branch at Pocatello, Idaho, for a two-year pre-engineering program, which was completed in 15 months. The schooling in Idaho was followed by four months of Midshipmen’s School at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. Classes included navigation, gunnery, seamanship, Naval regulations and training in signaling (by sound, light, and wigwag). After receiving the commission with the rank of Ensign in May 1945, he was given a one-week leave to visit his family in Salt Lake City, and then ordered to report to Washington D. C., where he spent eight weeks at Gunnery School in studying the control equipment for the four barrel 40 mm anti-aircraft gun. His next assignment was deck and gunnery officer of the 1st Division on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt which was still under final construction at the New York Navy Yard. The crew was housed at the Navy Base at Newport, Rhode Island, while construction of the ship was completed. In September, the crew boarded the ship at the New York Navy Yard and the ship was commissioned on Navy Day, October 24, 1945. In February 1946 the Roosevelt received its first major peacetime order, to sail to Rio de Janeiro, to represent the United States at the inauguration of the new Brazilian president. The rest of the year, the ship sailed in Atlantic waters from New York City at the north and Guantanamo Bay on the south. The ship was involved in several fleet maneuvers. He served as Officer of the Deck in port, gun director officer for the two quad 40 mm guns at the fantail. He was also LDS Group Leader. He was released to inactive duty in July of 1946. He was advanced in rank to Lieutenant, Junior Grade two months later and remained on inactive duty after the war.