Douglas Hegdahl was born in 1946 in Clark, South Dakota. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy on October 25, 1966 and was trained as a Postal Clerk. On April 6, 1967, the 20 year-old Seaman Apprentice was knocked overboard by the blast from a 5-inch gun mount from the USS Canberra (CAG-2) in the Gulf of Tonkin, three miles off the coast of North Vietnam.