Major Clyde Seiler
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Major Clyde Seiler in his F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter in Vietnam
Clyde Seiler Chapter 21 Disabled American Veterans is named after Major Clyde Seiler who had lived in Aurora, CO. Clyde Seiler was born on May 24, 1931, in Adams County, CO. In 1951, he enlisted in the United States Air Force serving with the Colorado Air National Guard. He served for 18 years, mostly with the Colorado Air National Guard, and was ordered to serve in Vietnam in 1968.
Major Seiler was a pilot in the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Phan Rang Air Base, near the south central cost of South Vietnam. On March 27, 1969, he was piloting his F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter-bomber #54-1897 on a strafing mission approximately eleven miles southeast of Bien Hoa city, northeast of Saigon when his plane was hit by enemy ground fire, causing a premature napalm bomb explosion.
Major Clyde Seiler became the Colorado Air National Guard's first casualty of the Vietnam War. He was 37 years old and just two weeks shy of returning home. Just two months earlier he had set the squadron record of flying its 5,000th combat sortie mission since the unit arrived in Vietnam in May 1968.
Major Seiler's remains were later recovered near the site where his jet crashed. He is interred at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver. He is also honored on the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington DC, inscribed at Panel 28w, Line 64.
COMMENDATIONS
★ Purple Heart
★ United States Aviator Badge Air Force
★ National Defense Service Medal
★ Vietnam Campaign Medal
★ Vietnam Service Medal
★ Air Force Presidential Unit Citation
★ Vietnam Gallantry Cross
★ Air Force Good Conduct Medal
Additional Pictures of Major Clyde Seiler
Major Seiler when he was with the 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Phan Rang Air Base in Vietnam.
Pencil rubbing of Major Clyde Seiler's name on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC
Air Force Technical Sergeant William Seiler, Major Seiler's son, presents a picture of his dad to Chapter 21's Commander Vic Lovell in 1982.
Combat readyness of the air national guard in vietnam
Painting of a Scramble at Phan Rhan Air Base in Vietnam 1969. The painting hangs in the main hall at Chapter 21's home.
The caption below the original painting reads as follows: Scramble At than Rang
South Vietnam 1969.
The 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Colorado Air National Guard arrived at Phan Rhan AB, Vietnam during the concluding days of the Viet Cong offensive of 1968. the Squadron was ordered to active Federal service as a result of the USS Pueblo incident in January 1968, along with three other F-100 tactical fighter squadrons, 136th TFS, New York, 174th TFS, Iowa, and the TFS, New Mexico. The 120th TFS entered combat on 5 May 1969, two days after its arrival, and completed its 1,000th mission 51 days later.
During the Air National Guard's eleven months of service in Vietman, the four F-100 squadrons flew 24,124 combat sorties and accumulated 38,614 combat flying hours. The Air Guard's record proved, once again, the combat-ready status and professionalism of the Air National guard.