Essay On Arnold Seidel

Pfc. Arnold V. Seidel, Age 25, NORTH DAKOTA

Arnold Victor Seidel was born on a farm near Cathay, North Dakota, Sept. 20, l917.
His parents were Paul and Emma (Peterson) Seidel. Paul was a farmer and Emma a teacher who came from Wisconsin to teach. He had an older brother, Garlen, who died in 2000, and four younger sisters: Melva Weber, Ferne Adkins, Gloria Luick and Vila Sill.

Arnold was baptized a Lutheran and confirmed in that faith in 1932. He attended the eight years of grade school, in a one-room rural schoolhouse, and graduated from high school at Fessenden, North Dakota, in 1934. Although a year younger than his brother, he caught up academically by skipping the fifth grade and they graduated together. The boys drove twelve miles to high school each day, with neighbors driving every other day during those four years. In

There he received a diploma in Radio Telegraphy and assigned to the Army Signal Corps, probably because of his ham radio experience and knowledge of Morse code. There was a critical need for Signal Corpsmen to go behind the enemy lines in New Guinea, which left them no time for home furlough. The men were shipped by train to California where they went by convoy ship to Port Moresby. He sent letters from New Guinea that were microfilmed. He wrote of crawling around mountainous country and realizing the danger. He took out a life insurance policy, which helped his parents a great deal after his death.

The final chapter of Arnold’s life began with what was surely a well-earned R & R trip to Mackay, Queensland, Australia. Thankfully, he and the other young men who perished in the B-17C plane crash had those days of pleasure before boarding the plane that was to take them back to war. The plane crashed June 14, 1943, causing their deaths - - all but one.

Vila Seidel Sill (Mrs. Kenneth)
Cincinnati,