05/01/2026
This is a special for SAN as one of our very own ambassadors, Don Bruder, takes off from San Diego to Washington, D.C. 🇺🇸
Don and his Whippet therapy dog Patches have been a source of positivity for our passengers, and we’re grateful he’s taking part in this meaningful experience. Don will join fellow veterans in visiting the memorials, with a particular stop at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Safe travels, Don, we’ll be happy to welcome you home!
About Don’s service:
Don was in one of the last civilian groups drafted during the Vietnam War. Fluent in German, he was stationed in Munich, Germany, with the U.S. Army, and later in Dachau, where he worked as an interpreter and clerk at a medical facility overlooking the road that once led Holocaust prisoners from the train stop to the camp.
“As a Jewish Holocaust survivor, it was deeply difficult to reconcile that reality. I often reflected on how many members of my own family and extended relatives may have walked that very path. It took many years for me to come to terms with the weight of that experience.”
