Norman Seaton Ives was born on March 5, 1897, in Galesburg, Knox County, Illinois. He was the son of Fannie Seaton and Norman E. Ives. He was the husband of Florence E. Nelson. They had two children namely Jane Ives and Norman Ives Jr.

He served in the United States Naval Reserve as a Captain during World War II. Captain Ives was the US director of the port of Cherbourg when the time of the ambush. He was on his way overland in a convoy of 14 motor vehicles to study the damage to the waterfront installations at St.Malo when a greatly superior force of Germans struck from positions of hiding. American combat troops had speared through the area. Two Nazi infantrymen entered the road with raised hands. Ives was suspicious. He stopped the cars but deployed his men. A hail of machine guns and rifle fire came from Germans concealed in the surrounding woods and fields. Ives's men held off the Germans with small arms fire while a member of the party escaped to seek aid from a US armored division a few miles to the rear. He was Killed in Action on August 2, 1944, during the liberation of Dol-de-Bretagne. He was awarded the Navy Cross and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, USA.

Navy Cross Citation:
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Norman Seaton Ives, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the submarine U.S.S. S-4 from 16 October 1928 to 1 August 1931, engaged in the hazardous duty of developing and perfecting the devices experimented with to make submarines safe for the operating personnel.

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