Ted Norton was just about to begin his military police training in Ontario and was getting his truck inspected in an auto shop when the waiting room TV suddenly switched to coverage of the planes hitting the World Trade Centre.
Having just begun his 20-year military career, the United States was under attack and like the rest of the world Norton could not believe it was happening.
“It kind of got real that day. I remember thinking, we’re going to go war, because who’s our biggest ally – the U.S.” said Norton. “If the U.S. goes, we’re going to have some type of coalition force going over.
“I’d just signed and I was finishing my military training. Maybe there was a bit of fear of the unknown, not knowing where I was going to end up in this.”
Born and raised in Prince George, the College Heights Secondary School graduate studied criminology at the College of New Caledonia diploma. He’d been turned down for the military right out high school for failing a hearing test but when he learned of the military police program he reapplied and at age 22 was accepted. He joined the MP program Aug. 9, one month prior to the terrorist attacks in the U.S.
Posted to Cold Lake, Alta., Norton let his master corporal know early on he wanted to go overseas on a tour but was told that wouldn’t likely happen his first year, not until he’d completed further training. But just six months into his posting he was sent to United Arab Emirates for seven months to support the war in Afghanistan. He provided security and policing at an air force base used to move troops and supplies, often dealing with soldiers traumatized by what they had experienced in combat situations.
“We had a lot of people coming back from Afghanistan for their rest and relaxation period and they would come back sometimes pretty messed up,” said Norton. “You would just try to talk them down and I’d tell them, ‘Hey man, I can’t relate. What you’ve been through has been terrible and I just need something from you. You’ve had quite a few to drink, I just need you to go back to your barracks.’
“One thing that stuck in my mind was we were the stop from Afghanistan, so if there was a hit and any time there was a death, we’d see the casket with the flag over it. The whole camp would be on parade and you’d see the whole crew with the different pallbearers bringing them back onto the ramp and going home to Canada. Sometimes there were four of five bodies at a time. It’s just sad.”
Norton knows how lucky he was to have never seen combat duty. He found out from one of his good friends, years after he’d met him, that he had survived with minor injuries after driving a truck that hit an improvised explosive device killing two military police members on board.
“I don’t have that same experience of some of these guys who sent time in Afghanistan, that’s a completely different tour,” he said. “Some of these guys spent seven month of eating rations and living in a tent and sleeping very little. We were in ATCO trailers and had a full mess tent, our tour was very different.
“One guy was complaining about the ice cream and another guy (who had served in Afghanistan) grabbed him and throws him up against the bus and he goes, ‘You’re complaining about that,’ and threw him down on the seat. Rightfully so, not knowing his audience and complaining about his big issue of the day. This other guy’s issue was he’d just saw all his buddies injured.”
In 2006, Norton returned to the Middle East on short notice for a 40-day deployment supporting the troops in Afghanistan and earned his general service medal. That was before he met his wife and he was game for anything.
“The tour part was a like a high, I really enjoyed it and had a good time,” Norton said. “The first five years, probably because you’re transitioning, they tell you to jump and you ask how high.”
From 2002-12 he served postings in Comox, Nanoose Bay and Esquimalt, then was sent to Borden, Ont., to begin a five-year term as an instructor at the Canadian Forces Military Police Academy.
In 2019, he completed his final overseas tour, joining the United Nations mission to Uganda flying in much-needed supplies to troops based in Republic of the Congo. Often the landing strips were not in secure locations and that led to a few tense moments for Norton and the rest of the security force.
“It was quick drops and the airstrips are not what we’re used to here,” he said. “Some weren’t even fenced and it would be all bush and you would see all these access points of potential threat. Sometimes they had equipment and sometimes they didn’t and there would be like 75 people coming to the aircraft to start grabbing stuff. That was a lot of people to watch.”
Norton and his wife Rosanna have four children and the family was ‘voluntold’ to relocate a couple times as he was reposted. They also had deal with him being away for three months every year, including six-week stints during the summer months, and that was especially hard on the kids. He has a 13-year-old son, Malachi, and three daughters, Addison, 10; Kayla, seven; and five-year-old Mackenzie. He knew, after he turned down the opportunity to go on an extended tour to train Ukrainian soldiers in eastern Europe, his time in the military was coming to an end.
“That’s the only time I’ve said no, and you feel kind of embarrassed because your whole career you’re just, go, go, go,” he said. “It was right during COVID and I was coming back from Africa and they were ready to send me out the door again. My wife was home with four kids and it was building up on her, so I just said it’s not a good time.
“My wife was the one who would pick up everything when I left. She was my rock. When I was young, if they sent me on a tour every six months I would have been happy. But once you get a family and you’re settled - if my kids were older I would have been more than happy to go, but I’m happy where I am right now.”
After 20 years, in June 2021, it was time for a career change to a job that would keep him rooted at home. Norton now works for the city as bylaw services supervisor, a position that became available after he started working in the cell block at the Prince George RCMP detachment.
Because of what happened that fateful day in 2001, Sept. 11 was always a day of sadness for Norton and his wife but that changed five years ago just after they moved back to B.C. when their youngest daughter Mackenzie was born that day.
“That was a nice bookend for our family, our last kid, and she completed it and added great enjoyment to a day that brought much pain to those in the (armed forces) in the years to come,” said Norton.
