George Ingram was born in December 1918 in Mellow Valley, in Clay County, Alabama, one of the seven children of a school teacher. The family had to move around Alabama as his father's profession dictated, but they had an income during the Great Depression. Ingram was with friends when the attack on Pearl Harbor was announced on the radio, and the news shook them. He was attending Jacksonville State University, a teachers' college, and figured he would be called to duty. He had been in the National Guard for 18 months, and had enough experience to know that the Army couldn't guarantee a soldier a place to sleep at night, so he prepared the necessary paperwork to join the Navy College Training Program [Annotator's Note: the V-12 Program]. At Northwestern in Chicago he did a full four-year training program in four months, or so he was told, and was commissioned. From there he went by train to California, then by ship to the New Hebrides in the South Pacific. Ingram's ship was on its way to Guadalcanal, after the island was taken, on a day when the Japanese conducted one of their massive raids. Their ship was diverted to New Caledonia, and stopped temporarily at the PT boat [Annotator's Note: patrol torpedo boat] base at Tulagi, where he was assigned to the SS Niagara [Annotator's Note: USS Niagara (AGP-1)].

George Ingram describes the USS Niagara (AGP-1) as a converted yacht, and at the time he was assigned it was tied up off the bay of Tulagi. During an earlier raid on Guadalcanal, the Niagara shot down seven Japanese dive bombers. Tulagi was the headquarters for the PTs [Annotator's Note: patrol torpedo boats] in that area and the Niagara's function was to supply PT boats. It so happened that John F. Kennedy's [Annotator's Note: later President of the United States John F. Kennedy] PT-309 was part of the squadron to which the USS Niagara was attached. Ingram was a junior officer, and this was his first watch at sea. At 11 in the morning on 23 May 1943, he "watch-spotted" a lone Japanese bomber overhead, who soon "got a straddle," that is, dropped a bomb so close to the USS Niagara that it actually knocked the bunks off one side of the ship and left them dead in the water for a short time. Ingram was 22, and he didn't know what he was doing, but the Niagara recovered and began to move. The trouble was that the Niagara was so slow it couldn't get out of the way. [Annotator's Note: Ingram chuckles, while professing it wasn't funny.] Twenty minutes later, a squadron of five Mitsubishi two-engine bombers all dropped their bombs on them, and "walked all over" the Niagara. One bomb went through the deck of the ship about three inches from a gun crew, exploded at water level, and split the ship open and set it on fire. The captain gave orders to abandon ship. Ingram waited, and when a PT boat finally pulled up, he stepped across to the PT-308. Amazingly there were no casualties among the 348 men on board. Ingram remembers pulling completely exhausted sailors out of the water and that it was a tough job to haul them over the side. Once everybody was safe, the captain gave the order to sink the ship. Two PT boats arrived to do the job; the first PT boat's two torpedoes missed, but the second PT got a hit. In his mind, Ingram can still see how the Niagara buckled up and the 87,000 gallons of high test gasoline it was carrying exploded.

George Ingram went back to Tulagi and, after some confusion, was ordered back to the United States for reassignment. He was put on old ship with the eight survivors of a Marine fighter squadron, and every one of them had some tremendous medal, but they kidded each other mercilessly about how they won those awards. Ingram ended up in San Francisco, but because his prior assignment was so convoluted, he was refused pay. He had to borrow money from an officer to return to Birmingham for his 30-day leave, during which time he got married. His next orders were to report to Seattle where another PT tender was being commissioned, the USS Mobjack (AGP-7).

George Ingram left port on the USS Mobjack (AGP-7) in a bad storm, and lost 15 pounds between Seattle and San Francisco due to sea sickness. The ship was taking what was known as green water over the bridge. Ingram was cured by sucking on a lemon and eating lemon drops. The Mobjack made it to San Diego, where the crew had gunnery practice before heading to the south Pacific. He was then transferred to Admiral William Halsey's staff and the war moved off and left him. He stayed in the operations office on New Caledonia for rest of the war, plotting the positions of ships on a big map. Ingram made a report every morning at the Admiral's Conference. He described Halsey as a "bulldog," and a great commander, who didn't back down for anything. Ingram had served long enough for a discharge, and, wanting no part in what he thought was the impending invasion of Japan, finagled orders to return to the United States at an opportune time. He was at sea when the atomic bomb was dropped, and arrived back in San Francisco when the country was in a joyful mood.