Son of Henry Jacob & Laura Amanda (Himmel) Velde;
Robert graduated from Knox College, 1940, B.A., commissioned as 2d Lieutenant, US Army July 5, 1940 Galesburg IL; and also attended the U. of Colorado; 1963 he was an Army Lieutenant Colonel serving as a personnel officer at NATO headquarters; retired with 26 years service 1966. As per Bob's son, "Perhaps Bob Velde's closet brush with death in WWII happened while answering the Call of Nature. He was with a forward detachment of the Signal Corps in the North African campaign of 1942, and his unit was setting up HQ in a rundown but once very elegant building, a palace of sorts. The bathrooms in the place were very especially posh, and using them was a memorable experience, especially after long weeks of bivouacking out in the Libyan Desert. The commode was one of those ancient ones with a separate tank, mounted high on the wall. As he went to flush, Bob paused in this admiration of the setting – something about pulling that chain didn't exactly feel right. He closed the lid to the throne and stood on it to inspect that tank – and found a three-grenade booby trap, set to be triggered by the flush chain. Not all valiant deeds depicted in this ancestry are acts of Arms and Armor.
Son of Henry Jacob & Laura Amanda (Himmel) Velde;
Robert graduated from Knox College, 1940, B.A., commissioned as 2d Lieutenant, US Army July 5, 1940 Galesburg IL; and also attended the U. of Colorado; 1963 he was an Army Lieutenant Colonel serving as a personnel officer at NATO headquarters; retired with 26 years service 1966. As per Bob's son, "Perhaps Bob Velde's closet brush with death in WWII happened while answering the Call of Nature. He was with a forward detachment of the Signal Corps in the North African campaign of 1942, and his unit was setting up HQ in a rundown but once very elegant building, a palace of sorts. The bathrooms in the place were very especially posh, and using them was a memorable experience, especially after long weeks of bivouacking out in the Libyan Desert. The commode was one of those ancient ones with a separate tank, mounted high on the wall. As he went to flush, Bob paused in this admiration of the setting – something about pulling that chain didn't exactly feel right. He closed the lid to the throne and stood on it to inspect that tank – and found a three-grenade booby trap, set to be triggered by the flush chain. Not all valiant deeds depicted in this ancestry are acts of Arms and Armor.
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