Sailor recalls wartime service

RITZVILLE - Benge native Don Saunders served with the Navy during the Vietnam War.

He was 21 when he enlisted in 1966.

"I got a notice from the Army, and I didn't want to jump from foxhole to foxhole, so I joined the Navy," Saunders recalled. "When I signed up, the Navy recruiter put me ahead of some other guys. My dad asked him why, and he said, 'Because he is a farm boy. He knows how to work and follow instructions.'"

After a 120-day delay, Saunders went to boot camp in San Diego in 1967.

"I qualified as damage control. If a ship got a hole, I was the one who went down and plugged it up," Sa...