Jacob Velfling, Jr. was born in Cadillac, Michigan in May 1926. Velfling played many sports in high school and had a lot of friends. He had two brothers. He and his brothers chopped wood to fuel the family furnace and learned mechanics from their father. His grandparents were from Europe but moved to the United States and lived with his family. Velfling's maternal grandparents were millionaires who lost all their money during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. As a result, Velfling's family fell on hard times. His father went to work in a foundry. In the small town of Cadillac everyone helped each other out. As a 15 year old, Velfling was working at a furniture store when he heard the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Everyone stopped working and listened to the news coverage coming in. Everyone was very sad. At around 16 years old, Velfling joined the Michigan National Guard to gain some military training to prepare him for war. The training he received was efficient and he learned the value of military discipline. After scoring high in weapons tests, Velfling was promoted to the rank of corporal and began training new recruits on the rifle range. He was very good at firing a bazooka [Annotator's Note: man-portable recoilless 2.36 inch anti-tank rocket launcher weapon] and enjoyed firing them. They were very accurate. After about a year in the National Guard, Velfling received a notice to report to Detroit [Annotator's Note: Detroit, Michigan] for examination. Then shortly after he was given notice to report to the military induction center at Fort Sheridan, Illinois [Annotator's Note: in Lake Forest, Illinois]. Velfling was sent to the field artillery school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma [Annotator's Note: in Lawton, Oklahoma] to begin his basic training. This was the first time he had ever been away from home. He and the rest of the draftees took a train from the induction center to Oklahoma. The ride was very pleasant. When he arrived at camp, he was assigned to a barrack. As a corporal, Velfling took charge of half of the men in a barracks and helped train them. His superior officers at Fort Sill were impressed with how well he could shoot a rifle and assigned him as the lead gunner on a 105mm howitzer [Annotator's Note: M2A1 105mm; standard light field howitzer]. His job was to get the gun in the right elevation and position for shooting. It was important to be accurate. While in Oklahoma he joined the mule team for one week. They had to care for the mule better than they cared for themselves.

Jacob Velfling, Jr. and his unit set out for New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] to board a ship for Europe. They shipped out at night and took a northerly route towards Iceland to avoid German U-boats [Annotator's Note: German for submarine]. Along the way, one soldier became gravely ill and died. Velfling was able to witness the burial at sea. They dropped him in the water by using a slide. Other than that, the trip was very smooth going. The ship stopped briefly in Britain to make sure it was safe to continue to France. Velfling landed in Le Havre, France and was unloaded quickly, boarded a truck, and was sent to the front. He spent most of his overseas service in Germany. He took part in the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] and met up with Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] in Germany. His unit [Annotator's Note: Battery D, 331st Field Artillery Battalion, 86th Infantry Division] captured many German prisoners. The German soldiers were happy to surrender to the Americans because they were tired of fighting. Velfling did much of his duty at night. His team would set up their howitzers [Annotator's Note: M2A1 105mm howitzer; standard light field howitzer] under the cover of darkness and zero them in based on the information of a radioman sent behind German lines. Velfling remembers traveling at night without lights. He and other lead gunners would stand on the bumpers of their jeeps with their hands on the howitzer being towed in front of them. They would alert the driver to stop when they felt the jeep in front stop. Once, while in Central Germany, Velfling experienced his closest brush with disaster while in combat. A shell from a German 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm, multi-purpose artillery] exploded mere yards away from their howitzer. The blast sent the howitzer straight up into the air. It blew Velfling and another man back some 20 feet, knocking them unconscious for several minutes. The steel plates of the howitzer prevented the shrapnel from killing him. Velfling estimates that while in the Ruhr Pocket [Annotator's Note: battle of encirclement April 1945, Ruhr Valley, Germany] in Southern Germany, his unit was responsible for taking between two and three thousand German prisoners. The prisoners were glad to be taken into custody by the Americans as they were out of supplies and had been forced to fight from the beginning. While in Southern Germany, Velfling was placed on special assignment in charge of a small group of soldiers. They were sent to live in a farmhouse for a week from which they would venture behind German lines at night to gather intelligence. By morning, the 86th Infantry [Annotator's Note: 86th Infantry Division] had the German troops surrounded and began accepting their surrender. The German and American commanding officers would negotiate the surrender. Most of the time, the German soldiers could go home after their uniforms and weapons had been confiscated. Not long after the special assignment in the Ruhr Pocket, the war ended and Velfling reported back to his unit. He recalled seeing Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] castle [Annotator's Note: Kelhsteinhuas, or Eagle's Nest, Nazi Party building on the summit of Kelhstein, Berchtesgaden, Germany] near the Austrian border from a distance. On or shortly after VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945], Velfling boarded a truck bound for a French sea port. They stopped in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] to sightsee for a few hours. Velfling boarded a ship at a French port and headed for the United States.

Upon arrival in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] in June 1945, Jacob Velfling, Jr. and the rest of his unit [Annotator's Note: Battery D, 331st Field Artillery Battalion, 86th Infantry Division] were stationed at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma [Annotator's Note: near Braggs, Oklahoma] until August [Annotator's Note: August 1945] when they boarded ship in Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington state], bound for the Pacific. While in Washington, Velfling was hospitalized with frostbitten legs. The Army issued him his discharge, but later revoked it because he was needed for the coming invasion of Japan. Velfling was stripped of his winter gear and given all new gear for the warm climate of the Pacific. It was the warm weather that saved his legs from amputation. They caught a few Japanese prisoners while in the Philippines. Not long after, the atomic bombs were dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945], and Japan issued its formal surrender. His brother-in-law was in the occupation of Japan and said that he worked on removing the mines in the water. He told Velfling, "we would have never made it" if America sent troops to Japan. Velfling earned his sergeant stripes while being in the Philippines. He oversaw the electrical generators and furnished the electricity for three different camps and hospital, even though he was listed as truck driver. Velfling was in the Philippines for about six months after the war. After the war was officially over, Velfling and his unit took the surrender of a few Japanese soldiers who were forced out of their positions in the mountains due to lack of food. One soldier said they were beginning to resort to cannibalism for survival. The prisoners were fed well. Having had experiences with both German and Japanese prisoners, Velfling gained some insight into the enemy. They were mostly good people. They were forced to fight and, in many cases, held normal jobs before the war. Many of the Germans were farmers, and one Japanese was a professor. The Philippine people said that the Japanese were very destructive during the war. For six months, Velfling served in the Philippines as an electrical engineer and was promoted to Sergeant. By the end of 1945, he boarded a very crowded ship and sailed through terrible weather on his return home. Once in the United States, he boarded a train Fort Sheridan, Illinois for his discharge. He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of Sergeant T-4 [Annotator's Note: US Army Technician Fourth Grade or T4; equivalent pay grade as a Sergeant; E-5]. To this day he has not received his mustering out pay. After the war, Velfling took advantage of the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] and went to college to become an electrical engineer. He worked with General Motors in Detroit [Annotator's Note: Detroit, Michigan]. He worked with a television company prior to General Motors.

Jacob Velfling, Jr.'s most memorable experience of World War 2 was when he was at a farm behind enemy lines. He met two little girls and played with them. He was treated well by the family and helped the family take care of the farm. He served in the war because he was drafted. His experience changed his life because he learned to treat people with more respect. His service helped Americans realize that it is nice to be free. It is hard to say what he thinks Americans think of World War 2 today because we do not discuss it anymore. Velfling believes it is important to have institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] and that we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations. It lets us know how our country remained free. If Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] did not lose supplies in Africa, he would have been able to conquer the world because the Germans had jet planes. He knew a friend that flew one of the German jet planes and said it was the most wonderful plane he ever flew.