Herbert L. Seubert was born in August 1917 in Buffalo, New York. Some of his fondest memories were on the Canadian Shore of Lake Eerie, in Crystal Beach [Annotator's Note: in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada]. During the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] he worked odd jobs, including a paper route. He attended the University of Buffalo [Annotator's Note: in Buffalo, New York] for three and a half years, when he learned of the Flying Cadet program which paid $75 a month plus free room and board which, during the Depression, was good money. He passed the required physical in 1940, when the United States had not yet entered the war. He reported to the Chicago School of Aeronautics in Glenview, Illinois on 30 June 1940. He had already been through a Civilian Pilot Training (CPT) program and earned a private pilot's license as a result. Herb got a great thrill out of his first flight and wanted to fly since then. He had considered becoming an airline pilot.

Herbert L. Seubert joined the United States Army Air Force and was first assigned to Selfridge Field [Annotator's Note: now Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township, Michigan] on P-40s [Annotator's Note: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft]. A man named Skip Adair [Annotator's Note: Claude Bryant "Skip" Adair, Group Executive Officer of the First American Volunteer Group of the Republic of China Air Force composed of American airmen and ground crew, called The Flying Tigers; later US Army Air Force Major] came by to recruit for a company in China called the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company [Annotator's Note: a Chinese aircraft manufacturer established by American entrepreneur William D. Pawley in the 1930s]. Adair was looking for volunteers to leave the Air Corps [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Corps] and work for his company, in reality fighting the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] although the United States was not yet officially in the war. The pilots would be paid $600 a month, and $500 for every Jap shot down. Seubert wanted to be an airline pilot, and was not particularly interested in being shot down, so he declined Adair's offer and remained with the Army Air Corps. After 60 hours of basic training on P-40s, he was qualified for combat and assigned to the 40th Pursuit Squadron which was split into several "paper squadrons" as they had no airplanes. A transport squadron with one C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft] arrived at Selfridge Field. Seubert saw an opportunity for multi-engine training, and as he wanted to be an airline pilot, he applied and was approved for transfer into the transport squadron, ending up in the 60th Transport Group at Westover Field, Massachusetts. Half of the group was sent to Pope Field [Annotator's Note: a U.S. military facility in Cumberland County, North Carolina] to form the 1st Ferrying Group. Seubert was a second lieutenant and made a squadron commander with one year of service under his belt. He and his men traveled 60 days on the USAT Brazil [Annotator's Note: formerly SS Brazil (1928)] departing from Charleston [Annotator's Note: Charleston, South Carolina] on 17 March 1941 [Annotator's Note: 17 March 1942] and arriving in Karachi [Annotator's Note: now Karachi, Pakistan] 17 May [Annotator's Note: 17 May 1942]. Seubert was stationed at Westover Field when he learned about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941].

Herbert L. Seubert [Annotator's Note: in the 1st Ferrying Group,10th Air Force] arrived in Karachi [Annotator's Note: now Karachi, Pakistan] on 17 May [Annotator's Note: 17 May 1942]. There were several airline pilots in the reserves who were called back to active duty. As they held the rank of captain, Seubert lost his squadron to one of these higher-ranking men. He ended up as an operations officer at the Karachi Airport [Annotator's Note: now Jinnah International Airport in Karachi] until December 1942 and was then transferred to northeast India. The group's operations officer had just been lost, having not returned from flying The Hump [Annotator's Note: aerial supply route over the Himalayan Mountains between India and China], so Seubert took over that position. In September 1942 he returned to the Zone of the Interior [Annotator's Note: the contiguous United States]. Seubert's unit was stationed at a British Camp in Karachi called New Malir. Many of the men fell sick either due to the water or the food, including Seubert who was hospitalized for a few days due to digestive issues. Many men had malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite] and dysentery [Annotator's Note: infection of the intestines]. Once in a while they would travel to Calcutta [Annotator's Note: now Kolkata, India] where they got to stay in hotels with clean sheets and have steak dinners. Seubert missed milk more than anything, because cows were sacred in India so there were no dairy products. All the men lost weight.

Herbert L. Seubert [Annotator's Note: in the 1st Ferrying Group,10th Air Force] was transferred to the Assam Valley in northeast India [Annotator's Note: from Karachi, British India, now Pakistan]. Equipment was shipped there, with difficulty, from Calcutta [Annotator's Note: now Kolkata, India]. Around December 1942 there was a change in the Air Transport Command resulting in Karachi becoming part of the African Middle East Wing [Annotator's Note: Africa-Middle East Theater, shortened as AMET], when it had previously been part of the CBI, or China-Burma-India. That is when he was sent to the main operation in northeast India, to headquarters in Hatiali. There were three airports in the area, Seubert flew out of Chabua [Annotator's Notes: now Chabua Air Force Station, Indian Air Force in Assam, India]. He mostly carried gasoline and oil to the Flying Tigers [Annotator's Note: the First American Volunteer Group of the Republic of China Air Force composed of American airmen and ground crew] and to China. Seubert flew a mission delivering equipment that had originally been designated for the Chinese but was diverted to the Middle East. He and his crew spent two nights in Tel Aviv [Annotator's Note: now Tel Aviv, Israel]. Seubert also flew The Hump [Annotator's Note: aerial supply route over the Himalayan Mountains between India and China]. What most impressed him on his first flight was the turbulence, losing a few thousand feet in seconds, even when the weather was good. Kunming [Annotator's Note: Kunming, China] was the main destination. There was an American Airlines [Annotator's Note: American Airlines, Incorporated] pilot who was flying 40 Chinese soldiers from China to India, a common event as the Chinese soldiers were training there. The plane got lost, and the copilot and radio operator bailed out leaving the captain with the soldiers. He was eventually able to find his way to the airport, and the copilot and radio operator returned three weeks later, barefoot, as their low-cut shoes fell off when they parachuted out of the plane. Seubert was stationed in India from May 1942 until September 1943 when he finished his tour and was allowed to go back to the United States.

Herbert L. Seubert remained in the United States after his return home. He was assigned to New Castle Army Air Base [Annotator's Note: now New Castle Air National Guard Base at New Castle Airport in New Castle County, Delaware]. The war ended while he was at McGuire Air Force base near Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Trenton, New Jersey], preparing to go to the Japanese theater [Annotator's Note: the Pacific Theater of Operations, or PTO]. Seubert would have been sent to the PTO if the atomic bombs had not been dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. Many lives were saved by not having to invade Japan. Seubert decided to remain in the service after the war, through the end of the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953]r. He became a meteorologist in the service from 1946 to 1953 but continued to fly. When he retired from the service, he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. While overseas [Annotator's Note: during World War 2], a C-46 [Annotator's Note: Curtiss C-46 Commando transport aircraft] lost an engine in northern Burma [Annotator's Note: now Myanmar] and the crew, including journalist Eric Sevareid [Annotator's Note: Arnold Eric Sevareid, American author and news journalist], had to bail out, but all survived. The C-46 was eventually replaced with the C-87[Annotator's Note: Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express transport aircraft].