Worton saw combat service in France, including Verdun and Chateau-Thierry,[1] as well as at the Battle of Belleau Wood,[2] where he was seriously wounded and gassed on June 6, 1918 while leading his platoon.

Worton returned to the United States in July 1929 and was appointed commanding officer of the Marine detachment aboard battleship USS Oklahoma.

On 8 September 1931, Worton was assigned again to the American Legation Guard in Peking, China, but his job was little but different than his previous Marine Corps duties.

Given a "cover story" as "a disgruntled officer leaving the Corps to establish a business in the International Settlement in Shanghai", he returned to China once again, and began to recruit agents who agreed to travel to Japan to secretly collect information for the US Navy.

[3] Working with closely with Chiang Kai-shek's secret police chief, Dai Li, Worton performed his assignment ably until he returned to Washington in June 1936.

[3] He spent almost twelve years on Marine assignments in China during the 1920s and 1930s and conducted the first American espionage operations against Japan using agents recruited on the Chinese mainland.

His unit was sent as a part of 1st Provisional Marine Brigade under the command Brigadier General John Marston to Iceland, where Worton served until March 1942.

In northern China, IIIAC battled with Chinese puppet troops aligned with Japan (many of whom later switched allegiance to Chiang Kai-shek) and with Communist guerrillas and regulars.

on June 30, 1949, by Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron after the resignation of Chief Clemence B. Horrall in the wake of the Brenda Allen scandal.

Horrall's assistant chief, Joe Reed, also eventually resigned after Worton took office, as he too was ensnared by the police corruption scandal.