Dates

• Existence: 1928 June 28 - 2020 November 20

Biographical Note: Kenneth C.R. Seal

Kenneth C.R. Seal served with the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.

Kenneth Charles Rowton Seal was born in San Francisco, California on June 28, 1928 to Harold F. and Margaret R. (McDowell) Seal. He studied engineering at the University of Portland in Oregon. He joined the military in 1946, entereing the Officer Candidate Program through the University of Portland. He entered the U.S. Navy as a Midshipman on March 26, 1948 at Pensacola, Florida, doing his basic aviation training there until September 9, 1949. He then entered advanced aviation training at Corpus Christi, Texas. He specialized in privateer tryp aircraft. As of January 1950, he began a six-week course in flight electronics and anti-submarine warfare at Alameda, California. By June of that year he was directed to Temporary Additional Duty with a transport order to Barber's Point transport base in Hawai'i, serving with the Seventh Fleet, Air Wing One, Squadron 22. After that, his movements were secret and he could not tell his family where he was going, but he did spend nine months in Naha, Okinawa, Japan and was able to take a trip to Hong Kong. During that time he, with the 22 squadron, participated in the Formosan Straits Patrol and receivd a China Service Medal for this work.

Seal applied to leave active service in 1951 and returned to Oregon. He was assigned to the Naval Air Facility in Salem, Oregon for monthly reserves duty and continued working on his degree in engineering at the University of Portland. After obtaining his degree, he accepted a job at the Boeing Company, transferring to Sand Point Naval Air Station for his reserve duty. He left the Naval reserves in 1959, citing the difficulty of working, attending graduate school at the University of Washington, and having a growing family as requiring too much energy to be able to continue in the reserves.

Seal married Ida Marie Severns on February 11, 1956 in Portland. He died on November 20, 2020 and is buried at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, Washington.

Biographical note derived from donor information and records on Ancestry.com.

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