Description:
David Blanch was born in New York City, Queens, on September 16, 1937 and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey.  He was in the class of 1959 at Rutgers University and majored in agricultural economics.  Blanch also attended Naval Officer Candidate School.  After OCS, as a supplier officer, he attended Navy Supply School in Georgia.  His first orders were on the AKA Arneb (AKA-56), attack cargo ship, to Antarctica and later, New Zealand.  In 1962, Blanch was transferred to the USS Rushmore and spent a year stationed in the Mediterranean.