Joe Don "J.D." Norton is a thirty-six year old firefighter born on August 4 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Throughout high school he was active in basketball and later on he attended two years of college at Scottsdale Community College. When he turned twenty, he moved to Alaska to pursue a career in the fishing industry. He spent his summers working in canneries and on a fishing boat, and later on decided to join the United States Navy where he successfully trained at the Search and Rescue Swimmer School. Upon completion of his Navy service, he saw a documentary on smoke-jumpers, which he immediately became interested in. Morton then attended a smoke-jumping school in Redding, California with the United States Forest Service. Upon completion of his education there, he moved back to Alaska and bought ten acres of land, built a cabin and made it his home. His sports interests are foursquare, dog-mushing, two-man sand volleyball, body-surfing and swimming.
Joe Don Norton is one of the sixteen contenders for the million dollar prize in the new pirate reality show from CBS, Pirate Master. This free-spirited, funny, big-hearted man was supposed to play for Survivor: Guatemala, but unfortunately got injured right before they were shipped of to their destination, thus forfeiting his participation in the show. He is cast for Pirate Master, to compete for the million dollar prize and the title as the ultimate Pirate Master.
(Photo courtesy of CBS)