Navy Years

Dr. Paul M. Sutton. Upon graduation from Minerva High Schoo in 1939, attended Harvard University on a four-year full-expense National Scholarship, graduating Magna cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. War duty in the U.S. Navy followed, then a return to academics. From 1946 to 1951, he continued his education at Columbia University where he earned both a M.A. and Ph.D degrees in physics and served as a graduate instructor and research associate in the physics department.

On active duty for three and a half years, during and after World War II, Sutton served a total of 11 years in the U.S. Naval Reserve, culminating in service as Training Officer for Division 3-72, 3rd Naval District, New York City, during the Korean War. In World War II, following officer's training he spent five months learning the operation and maintenance of a Top Secret acoustic homing torpedo, a successful weapon used against German submarines. He and his crew operated from Ascension Island, a volcanic cone in the center of the South Atlantic. The crew served a Naval B-24 squadron, VB-107, and, in 14 months, demolished four submarines with these torpedos.

As the war wound down, the B-24 squadron was transferred to England, and Sutton and crew were sent to North Carolina, where,just before V-E Day, off Norfolk, Virginia, the only lighter-than-air (blimp) squadron with torpedos sank another enemy submarine.

After the war, Sutton was assigned to Inspector of Naval Materials at 30 Church Street, New York City. (Today this spot is known as Ground Zero.) After six months, he was assigned to serve as Instrumentation Coordinator for the Ordinance Evaluation Group at the Bikini Atom Bomb Tests where he witnesses the fourth and fifth atom bomb explosions...historical events.