The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

BREMERTON, Wash. – Waitsburg native Wyatt Withers, son of Laurie Withers and the late Ian Withers, and grandson of Jack McCaw and the late Laurette McCaw, has done his family proud by receiving recognition as the 2014 Sailor of the Year for Submarine Squadron 5 out of Bremerton.

Withers graduated from Waitsburg High School in 2010 and followed in "Grandpa Jack's" footsteps by joining the Navy, where he pursued a career in nuclear engineering. He excelled early on, finishing 13th among 320 students in the Navy's Nuclear Power School in Charleston, S.C.

Today, 2nd Class Petty Officer Withers is stationed on the USS Connecticut, a Seawolf Class submarine, where he works in the Machinery Division, maintaining the fluid systems of his boat's reactor plant.

Withers was first selected Sailor of the Year for his own ship where he and his division worked to prepare the sub for a return to sea. "I qualified the senior in-port and at-sea watch stations, Engineering Duty Petty Officer and Engineering Watch Supervisor, respectively, as a 2nd Class Petty Officer. Those stations are normally reserved for 1st Class and Chief Petty Officers," said Withers.

After being selected as Sailor of the Year on his own boat, Withers went through an interview process, where he was ranked among competing Sailors of the Year from other submarines and was then selected as the finalist for all the submarines in his area, Submarine Squadron 5.

"I'm extremely proud -- beyond proud!" said Wyatt's mother, Laurie."He's had two years of schooling and went to three different types of schools. He was first in his class in two of those schools and graduated with distinction in the other," she said.

Withers currently resides in Bremerton with his wife Amanda. He has a year-and-a-half left in his six-year enlistment.