This February 17, 1944, Lowell Tribune article was found on page 2, column 1:
Merle Sutton, S 2/c, writes that he has about completed his school term and hopes to get a leave before he is transferred.
This Lowell Tribune article was found in the January 18, 1945, issue (page 7, column 2):
Mrs. Fanny Sutton received a Christmas box sent from Hawaii, where her son, Coxwain Merle rested after the Philippine invasion. Merle has already been in two invasions and has seen a lot of action.
This September 13, 1945, Lowell Tribune article was found on page 2, column 2:
Ie Shima was an uneventful stopover for Japanese emissaries who paused on the desolate Pacific island while enroute to Manila for peace conferences with General of the Army MacArthur's staff.
But for Merle C. Sutton, 19, Seaman First Class, USNR, of Lowell, Ind., this area near Okinawa recalls a 13-minute victory over five Jap suicide planes that attacked the lone destroyer escort, USS John C. Butler, there last spring.
The brief action, details of which have just been released, began when his ship's lookout reported: "Aircraft at three-five-zero. They look like Japs!" Immediately the Butler's guns staved off two of the five attackers before they could start their dives.
A third plane, ragged with flames, swooped close to the ship, clipping the antennae and crashed nearby. Another was blown apart while trying to bank. Another was blown to bits in a dive toward the ship's mast.
Such action was not new to the Butler's crew. At Leyte their ship, after scoring two hits on a Jap cruiser, stood by to rescue 130 survivors from the carrier USS St. Lo, and at Luzon she escorted to safety the damaged escort carrier USS Kitkun Bay.
This Lowell Tribune article was found in the March 28, 1946, issue (page 3, column 2):
Eugene H. Ashton, GM 3/c, and Merle C. Sutton, Cox. were discharged from the Navy last Saturday at Great Lakes.