The ship was built as a Maritime Commission type N3-M-A1 cargo vessel at Penn-Jersey Shipbuilding Corp. intended for naval and Lend Lease service as M.C.

hull 649 assigned the name MV Summer Pierce before being laid down on 3 December 1943.

Norma was delivered to the Navy on 6 June 1944 and transferred to the U.S. Army on the same day.

[4] The ship was returned to the Maritime Administration 8 August 1947 and sent into the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, Benicia, California.

On 31 March 1965 Henry Wright Hurley was sold to Zidell Explorations, Inc., Portland, Oregon for scrapping.