Arley Jett was born in 1922 in Breathitt County, Kentucky. He grew up in Canoe, Kentucky and near Cincinnati, Ohio. Jett says that growing up as an only child he did not have the opportunity to play sports and spent most of his time helping his mother and father working in corn fields on the family farm. Both of his parents had large families. Jett was employed at a canning company that canned vegetables when he first heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, HAwaii on 7 December 1941]. After two or three weeks the company was forced to close because the tin used to make the cans now had to be used for the war effort. Jett says he was shocked by the attacks and the swiftness at which the country switched over to a wartime economy. Jett spent more time focusing on the war with Germany than he did the war with Japan. All his friends were either volunteering or being drafted, so Jett figured he might as well join them. He was drafted on 3 February 1943 and reported for induction at Fort Thomas, Kentucky. His unit [Annotator's Note: 262nd Signal Construction Company] was soon shipped to Camp Young in California. After brutal training and advanced maneuvers, Jett learned that his unit was supposed to go to North Africa, but the orders were cancelled before they could ship out. Jett was granted a 14 day furlough and returned home to visit his family. His father had saved enough gasoline ration stamps to afford to visit with family in Kentucky. Jett returned to California then he was sent to Fort Polk [Annotator's Note: then Camp Polk], Louisiana where he completed more training in laying field communication wire. After several weeks in Louisiana, Jett was sent to Camp Shanks, New York to prepare for deployment overseas. Jett says the hardest duty he ever performed was while at Camp Shanks guarding soldiers aboard ships that were due to sail. Jett remembers that so many soldiers were ready to jump ship to avoid deployment. Soon after Jett boarded the Queen Elizabeth bound for Scotland where he remained for about a month before being sent to Liverpool [Annotator's Note: Liverpool, England] as the Allied forces prepared for the invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Jett believes he landed in Normandy on D plus 10 [Annotator's Note: ten days after the day of the invasion; 16 June 1944]. Not long after arriving in France, Jett recalls the Allied bombing of Saint-Lo [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lo, France] where he says the ground seemed to shake for hours as the bombing continued.

Arley Jett recalled the Queen Elizabeth ship that took him overseas to Scotland was so loaded down with men and supplies, there was not much room to move around and enjoy leisure time on board. Jett remembers being ordered to always have his life jacket at hand in the event that the ship was torpedoed by German u-boat [Annotator's Note: German submarine]. He did not receive any liberty [Annotator's Note: authorized absence for a short period of time] during his time in Liverpool [Annotators Note: Liverpool, England]. While in Normandy, Jett helped splice cables to set up a communication network between London and the French interior. Jett says other than this duty, his unit [Annotator's Note: 262nd Signal Construction Company] was at a standstill for the first month in France as fighting continued in the hedgerows and German planes continued to fly overhead. Once the fighting was finished in Normandy, Jett's unit began pushing east while building and repairing telephone lines along the way. Jett remembers stops in Le Mans, France and stayed in pup tents, then onto Paris and Rheims, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and "everywhere in Germany except Berlin." In Paris, Jett remembers staying in a garrison near the Seine River that had formerly been used to house German troops. He and his buddies would visit a tavern they called the Bloody Bucket to have some beers, but they never fraternized with the locals. In Germany, Jett recalls seeing truckloads of dead German soldiers being taken from the frontlines to be buried. While inspecting a recently laid gas line with his sergeant, Sergeant Mars [Annotator's Note: no given name provided], Jett unknowingly kicked an unexploded hand grenade that luckily did not explode. It was then discovered by a minesweeper that German soldiers had recently laid a minefield surrounding the recently completed gas line.

Near the end of the war, Arley Jett's unit [Annotator's Note: 262nd Signal Construction Company] was constructing telephone lines along the German Autobahn. When word came that the war was over, Jett and his fellow soldiers drank up all the wine in the town along the Ruhr River where they were stationed. Jett was then sent to Camp Lucky Strike [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Lucky Strike was near Le Havre, France] to await a ship back to the United States. While at Camp Lucky Strike, Jett was playing baseball with some guys and was hit in the face by a ball, breaking his cheekbone and nose. Upon arrival in the United States, Jett was separated from service at Borden General Hospital, Chickasha, Oklahoma in 1945. Jett says he drew G.I. unemployment benefits for a year and began working at various jobs around the Cincinnati [Annotator's Note: Cincinnati, Ohio] area. Jett says that he served in World War 2 so he could get it over with and that it made him a better man. If necessary, he would do it all over again.