Preston Seim made a profound decision before graduating from Tahoma High School in June 2024. Five years earlier, his older brother, Jacob Michael Langford-Kaiser, a 2019 Tahoma High School graduate, had enlisted in the Navy but was tragically killed in an automobile accident the summer before he was to leave for basic training. In tribute to his brother, Preston enlisted in the Navy to follow a similar course that Jacob had marked out for himself. “Preston enlisted in his brother’s honor to do what Jacob never got the chance to do,” explains the boys’ mother, Angela Langford Seim
Jacob and Preston, with a deep sense of pride, continued the family legacy of military service. Their maternal grandfather, Frank Langford, a Navy veteran, rests in Tahoma National Cemetery, and their maternal great-aunt, Francis K. Bartley, served as a naval nurse. On the paternal side, their grandfather, Lamon B. Seim, a Navy veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, also rests in Tahoma National Cemetery. Of her father, Angela Langford Seim comments that “He’d be so proud” of his grandsons, “but then again,” she adds, “he already was.”
Preston Seim fulfilled his promise to himself and his brother, graduating from basic training at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes, Illinois, in mid-September 2024 with a rate of electrician’s mate in the nuclear program. His mother and girlfriend were there to celebrate his accomplishment; however, there can be no doubt that Jacob was there as well, with a symbolic salute of sibling pride and a congratulatory word of praise: “A job well done, brother.”
After the graduation ceremony, Preston posed for a picture while holding a t-shirt emblazoned with the family’s motto, which originated in response to Jacob’s death, #LIVELIKEJACOB. True to that guiding principle, Preston had done exactly that.
