Community Corner

Douglas County Girl Serves on a Destroyer in the Atlantic Ocean

Douglas County's own Sarah Watson is now a Quartermaster aboard the U.S.S. Donald Cook, a destroyer ship cruising in the Atlantic Ocean.

She was a Panther, now she's a destroyer! Young Sarah Watson was roaming the halls of Chapel Hill High School just a few short years ago. She was proud to wear her purple and black but today she's wearing a Navy uniform and serving on the U.S.S. Donald Cook, a Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Seaman Sarah Watson, now 20, joined the Navy on July 8, 2012. On this Veteran's Day her parents and four siblings, who all live in Douglas County, couldn't be prouder of her. And she couldn't be happier, serving as a Quartermaster dealing with navigational charts.

"Honestly, I love it," she said in a ship-to-iphone interview with Patch. "It couldn't be better. It's way better than DQ," she joked. 

Sarah worked at the Dairy Queen on Fairburn Road before going into the Navy.

"I definitely have a lot more respect for how hard people work in the military," she said, "honestly just to get through one day. Once I went in, I have a different outlook on life. You definitely can't take anything for granted.

"I wish a lot more people would join instead of working in minimum wage jobs," she continued. "There are many more opportunities out there. I wish people would take that step and join the military. It would give them a broader outlook on life."

Sarah is following in her father's footsteps, since he was in the Marines. She's quick to point out she is, however, the first woman to join the military from her family.

"My father told me not to join, but that's probably why I went in," she laughed. "It was the last little rebellion I could have. But we talk often and my parents couldn't be happier."

Sarah said she hasn't done much sight-seeing yet but is looking forward to being stationed in Spain and living on land early next year.


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