Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1943 Lucky Bag:

DANIEL RYAN SEIDELL

Before becoming ensnared in our routine, Dan was a gentlemanly playboy with one glorious year at Iowa State. Plebe year Dan was the athletic boy, but after that dragging interfered, and the battalion teams received another member. Football, basketball, and lacrosse were his favorites. Besides athletics “Doc’s” favorite pastimes were “shooting the breeze,” reading, and movies. In his reminiscent moods he dreamed of sheep ranches and Buick convertibles, but when necessary he was serious and easily overcame the academic obstacles. His cheerful nature and aggressive spirit has won him high esteem among his classmates.

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The Class of 1943 was graduated in June 1942 due to World War II. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Loss

Dan was lost when USS Amberjack (SS 219) was sunk by a patrol craft on February 16, 1943 near Rabaul.

From the Class of 1943 anniversary book “25 years later…”:

Dan was born in September 1920 in Neola, Iowa. He was appointed from Iowa and reported to the Academy on 12 July 1939. Upon graduation he reported for submarine training to the Submarine Base, New London, Connecticut. In January 1943 he reported to the submarine USS AMBERJACK in the Pacific. She departed Brisbane on a war patrol in the Rabaul-Buka-Shortland Sea Area. After a number of battles on the surface she was lost with all hands, possibly to the Japanese torpedo boat HAYODORI and SUBCHASER No. 18 on 16 February, 1943, Dan wore the Purple Heart, American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp, and the Asiatic Pacific Area Campaign Medal. He was survived by his mother, Mrs. Edna Marie Ryan Seidell who at Dan’s death resided at 3869 Dewey Avenue, Omaha, Nebraska.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Daniel attended grade school at Fort Dodge, Iowa, and graduated from Dowling High School where he was an all-state football player and member of the Monogram Club. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at Iowa State college. His father was a veterinarian.

He has a memory marker in Iowa; he was survived by his parents and his sister.

Photographs

From the Des Moines Tribune on October 15, 1935

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James Lewellyn ’43 was also lost aboard USS Amberjack (SS 219).