Orrin Welty was born in December 1922 in Lima, Ohio. He grew up during the Great Depression and spent summers working on a farm that his uncle owned in Pandora, Ohio. After graduating high school, he went to work as a riveter's "bumper" for the Lima Locomotive Works, building locomotives for the English, and was "undraftable." But Welty told his father that he wanted to join the Air Force, and with the help of some influential people, he was drafted in 1942 in Toledo, Ohio. He was sent to Keesler Field, Mississippi [Annotator's Note: now Keesler Air Force Base in Biiloxi, Mississippi] for basic training, which he enjoyed, except for the parachute exercises. After the discovery that he was not being prepared to be a pilot, he was moved to Gambier College in Ohio where he began training in meteorology. From there he was transferred to Ardmore College in Oklahoma to continue his "weatherman" education. But the program was discontinued, and he went Atlantic City, New Jersey where he became a DM or drill master. He finally got a billet in the aviation cadet program at Superior State Teachers College in Wisconsin where he began training. Next he went to Santa Ana, California, and made it as a pilot, then continued to Visalia, California and trained on the PT-17 [Annotator's Note: Stearman-Boeing Model 75 primary trainer aircraft]. He soloed out fairly quickly, but on one flight he heard a "pop," and when he stuck his head out to see what had happened, he was hit in the face with hot engine oil. He made it back to base, cleaned up, and suffered through a short spell of "after shock." Nevertheless, he graduated and went into BT-13s [Annotator's Note: Vultee BT-13 Valiant basic trainer aircraft], soloed out early, and proceeded to Pecos, Texas for further training. He had a nice experience there, except for one night when he was called out to join a search mission for three aircraft that had gone missing around the Davis Mountains in southern Texas. Within a few hours, a radio transmission informed everyone that the wreckage of all three planes had been found, crashed into the side of the mountain, with all six pilots killed. Afterward, he helped train new cadets, and one of them ran a plane over his foot, damaging his ankle. It took three months to recover, and Welty missed graduating with his class. He finished with the next class as a flight officer.

After graduation, Orrin Welty went home on a 14-day furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], and when he reported back to somewhere in Missouri, he became copilot of a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Flying Fortress heavy bomber] crew. An accident in the plane prompted a hearing that found the pilot and copilot of the plane "had not followed instructions," and although they got the plane and crew back to base safely, they were found guilty. While the rest of the crew went on to combat assignments, Welty and the pilot were put on half-pay for two-and-a-half months and were sent for MP [Annotator's Note: military police] duty in Dallas, Texas for two weeks. From that point on, Welty flew experimental B-17s. The planes had huge gas tanks substituted for the bombs in the bomb bay, and he was flying for as long as ten hours at a time before landing. He found out later they were testing new types of radar and bombsights. Sometimes his fingers or toes were freezing, but he said it was nothing "harmful." The "gentlemen in the back" were sometimes colonels or captains. Once he went to Rio de Janeiro [Annotator's Note: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil], where he got to see the statue of Jesus Christ. He flew missions along the west coast looking for the "two-man Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] subs." About this time in his military career, Welty was transferred to California and began flying B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] as a copilot, and did some further missions up and down the coast until the war ended. He got out of service in January or February 1946.

When he was flying experimental missions, Orrin Welty said he never knew the nature of the business. He describes how the pilot and copilot entered the plane through their own portal, and had no communication with the rest of the people on the plane. They just flew where they were ordered to go. Once, when General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] was going to his hometown in Kansas for his birthday, Welty was one of 18 B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] that flew in formation over the site. Another time he flew up to Canada, and was up about 18,000 feet where he could practically see the East Coast of the United States. He remembers being told not to try to find out what was going on "behind" him. It was none of his business. He mentions that while he was flying B-17s, he became a second lieutenant. He was always a part of the 8th Air Force, and designated as "Strategic." One eventful flight occurred when he was flying out of Wichita [Annotator's Note: Wichita, Kansas], and a colonel came to the cockpit and said he wanted to fly the plane. When the pilot was assured of the officer's credentials, he asked Welty to join the navigator while the colonel took over. The "idiot" put the plane in a deep dive and tried to come up and do a loop. Welty said that that there were microphones, books and flight plans flying all over the place and "that old B-17 shook." By the time the pilot got the plane back under control, the colonel had "disappeared" into the back of the plane. On a steady course, Welty said, the B-17 is beautiful, and he enjoyed flying it. Although he didn't personally know any cadets who lost their lives during training, Welty remembered that while he was in Merced, California, he saw the personal belongings of those who were lost being carted away. Welty said that at 20 years of age, seeing the cart go by was depressing, but he just went on with his life.

Orrin Welty describes some of the differences between flying the B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] and the B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. He loved the B-17 and "tolerated" the B-24. In later years, Welty and his wife visited the bases where he did his training. Asked to relate the toughest part of his training, Welty said it was when he had to leave the B-17s and go on to the B-24s. While he was still in PT training, in California, he saw a girl in a convertible, and thought it would be fun to "buzz" her. After he did it, he thought he'd be reported and "flunk" out of cadets, but nothing ever came of it. After he graduated, Welty didn't always have the same crew, but he remembered several people he flew with and said he had enjoyed their company. He stayed in touch with only one of them after the war. When he wasn't flying, he was like any other young man; he went to nightclubs and drank beer, but he was always sober when he had to fly. He returned home only once during his entire service career. He talked of the culture shock of going from his home to Keesler Field [Annotator's Note: now Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, Mississippi]. It was hot and muggy and full of mosquitoes there, and he was in the wrong program. Welty was in Big Bear, California when he learned of President Roosevelt's [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] death, then it occurred to him that the base was in Victorville, California. He was still there when the Japanese surrendered, and there was a great deal of celebration in the officers' club. After the war ended in August [Annotator's Note: August 1945], he went into commercial pilots' training in Texas, and then got out as a first lieutenant. Welty was in Victorville, California when he heard about the atomic bombs having been dropped on Japan, and it brought to mind that in training he did maneuvers that B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] pilots had to know for emergency landings. He never got to use the commercial pilot training he underwent in Texas.

After the war, Orrin Welty went back to Ohio worked for a Ford company where his father was the sales manager. He took charge of the business's airplane, and on one occasion he was asked to fly it to the insane asylum, from whence it would be towed to the car dealership as a publicity stunt. He successfully accomplished the task. Welty had no trouble transitioning from soldier to civilian. He moved from the car dealership to a finance company, met and married his wife, and the life was "ideal" for him. He said his most memorable experience of World War 2 was getting his ankle run over in Pecos, Texas. He was very disappointed to miss graduating with his class. Welty said he joined the armed forces because he felt that although he was working for the war effort in the locomotive factory, he wasn't doing enough. Welty credits his tenure in the service with giving him the maturity to carry on for the rest of his life. He retired from the financial institution at the age of 62. When he looks back over his four year military career, he is thankful for those who served in action and came back alive. Sadly, Welty said, he doesn't think World War 2 means much to the people of today. There are some, however, who have shown their appreciation to him. Welty said that whether or not we like it, we have to fight to stay free.