Selig Seidler

Selig Seidler, "Typing a report to send to headquarters with film of last mission."

Selig Seidler enlisted at Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York on August 18, 1942. He was a member of the 16th Combat Camera Unit in the CBI during WWII.  He originally joined the CCU on Detached Service from 12th Service Group on 16 Aug 1944 with the rank of sergeant, and was permanently assigned to the 16th CCU a few months later.

He and another 16th CCU cameraman, Hal Geer, were (except for the engineers) among the last few people to leave Kweilin as the Japanese were making their big push to eliminate American air bases in China during their Ichigo push in late 1944. "Besides our job of photographing the event, we were assisting as best we could in destroying anything that could be of any use to the enemy. We burned all the hostels by putting 55 gallon drums partially filled with gasoline in, or close to the buildings and setting them off by shooting into the drums with our trusty .45's. Then running like rabbits, as the drums and hostels went up in flames."  However they rarely saw many of the images they too, as "All of our exposed film was sent to Kunming for processing, and we seldom saw the results."

Mr. Seidler celebrated his 91st birthday on November 11, 2008--Veterans Day.  He rode in the NYC Veterans Day parade with a group of other WW II veterans.  Mr. Seidler was kind enough to let Remembering Shared Honor videotape a recounting of his personal CBI story in August, 2008. Mr. Seidler passed away on May 19, 2009 in Forest Hills, New York.

Selig Seidler, November 11, 1917 - May 19, 2009.