A Weissport native says his time in the military was a learning experience.

Norman Sutters of Palmerton is a U.S. Navy veteran who worked in Navy hospitals in Philadelphia and Guam.

Sutters attended the former Weissport School, and then the old Lehighton High School on Third Street.

He turned 17 on April 3, 1958, and on June 8 of that year enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

Sutters said he departed from the train station that was down on the Lehighton bypass to Philadelphia, and from there to the Great Lakes.

“Everything was new, you’re young, you don’t know a lot,” said Sutters, 83. “Then when I got to Great Lakes, they gave you clothing, the haircut.”

Sutters said back then that if you went in before you were 21, it was called a Minority Cruise.

“I actually had three years, nine months and eight days and got out two weeks before I was 21, so I practically had my four years in,” he said. “When I left to go to Guam, I had to check in to Treasure Island, and then I got discharged at Treasure Island.”

Sutters said he went through basic training and school at Great Lakes, and then went to Philadelphia Naval Hospital, where he put 16 months in on orthopedics, half of which he was asked to be the dressing coreman.

He worked for a doctor who performed amputations and has vivid memories of his time there.

Next, Sutters was off to Guam, where he spent 22-and-a-half months, including the Christmas of 1960 and 1961, where he worked in pharmacy for over 18 months.

“The day I started in the pharmacy, there was an airplane crash, so I did help the identifying crew,” he said.

In between his stay, Sutters went to Japan three times and flew space available, which meant if there was an empty flight you flew for nothing.

“It came time to leave, and instead of them sending me back right away to the states, I went 10 days to the Naval station and I helped them out in the pharmacy,” he said. “I got out March 16, 1962,” a few weeks shy of turning 21.

Sutters then adapted to life back in the states, where he worked nearly eight years at Blue Ridge Pressure Die Casting, and 3½ years with Russell Kresge’s Vending Machines in Lehighton. He then put in 28 years in UPS, where he loaded, unloaded and washed trucks.

He took early retirement at the age of 60 because his late wife, Sandra, had cancer.

In 2003, Sutters got a job as a transport driver for Palmerton Community Ambulance from 2003-2013.

After a short break in between, he has spent nearly the past seven years as a carrier with First Northern Bank in Palmerton, where he still works.

Sutter said he’s worked since the age of 11, when he started out on a baker route and went house to house for the late Wilbur “Cap” Bauchspies in Lehighton.

As he reflected on his service to our country, Sutters said he learned many life lessons through his involvement in the military.

“I felt it as a duty; I didn’t know what branch to go in,” he said. “I am sad by those boys that came back from Vietnam and they spit on them, it just chokes me up. That was bad.

“It was a growing experience, it’s part of life. I was just fortunate I didn’t catch Vietnam.”

Sutters was married to his wife, Sandra, for 41 years until she passed away in 2005. Together, they have a son, Keith Sutters, and a daughter, Donna Zeigenfuss.

“Life’s been a journey,” he said. “I am a fundamental Bible believing Christian.”