Letters From War Wednesday: World War II – Jack Sieber.

If you’re anything like the History Junkie, no matter how disinterested you were in the recent royal wedding between William and Kate,  you still ingested bits and pieces through the non-stop force feeding of coverage.  Most interesting to me … no, not Kate’s wedding dress … was Prince William’s work with the RAF Air-Sea Rescue.  Go figure.

Anyway, it brought to mind my conversations with Jack Sieber, a Navy pilot who served with Air-Sea Rescue in the Pacific during World War II.  On this Letters From War Wednesday, let’s have a look at one of his notes, written while training down south.

Lt. Jack Sieber - VPB 23, Navy Air-Sea Rescue

“I wish to inform you of my new address here at Jacksonville,” he wrote home in November 1943.  “I find Jacksonville to be the most beautiful base I have ever been stationed at.

“…I completed my Aviation cadet training at Corpus Christi, where I was given my wings.  However, I am still in training here, flying twin-engine PBY patrol bombers and studying celestial navigation.  I hope I can transfer to land-based bombers after I complete my training here, because I want to fly something with a little more speed than a seaplane.”

Sieber would end up flying Navy Dumbos from hubs throughout the Pacific, including Hawaii, Midway, Johnston Atoll, Guam, Iwo Jima and Saipan.  From Peleliu, his unit, VPB 23, searched for survivors of the ill-fated USS Indianapolis.